


The Secrets in the Blood

by Moonfreckle (Sunfreckle)



Category: Vampire: The Masquerade, Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines (Video Game), World of Darkness (Games)
Genre: All sorts of other graphic violence though, Betaed, Blatant disrespect for human life, Blood, But NO sexual violence, Character Development, Content warnings for every chapter, Developing Relationship, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, Folie a Deux, Ghouls, Horror, Murder, Needles, Swearing, Torture, Twisted Romance, Vampires, Violence, takes place after the events of the game
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-21
Updated: 2017-06-16
Packaged: 2018-10-22 08:49:12
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 24
Words: 133,981
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10693572
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sunfreckle/pseuds/Moonfreckle
Summary: Vandal Cleaver runs the blood bank, catering to Santa Monica’s vampire population, and Therese Voerman runs him. His life is hers and he hates her for it and nothing ever changes, except it’s about to, in a big way.A messed up story about my favourite messed up ghoul.This isnota redemption story and the tags and content warnings are there for good reason.(If you’re just looking for a violent, bloody romance, this story can be read with little to no knowledge of the game. Especially if you take a look at the glossary I added at the end.)





	1. Night Shift

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story takes place shortly (max 6 months?) after the events of the game and is told largely from Vandal Cleaver’s twisted perspective.
> 
> This is a messed up story revolving around messed up characters and it is by far the most gruesome thing I’ve ever written. I will post content warnings at the beginning of each chapter. This short little intro has no content warnings necessary, unless you can’t deal with blood or needles, in which case this is not the story for you… I have also decided that I will warn for violence and how graphic it is, but I have removed the content warnings for death, because that would kind of spoil the dramatic tension.

It was hot and sweltering in the Santa Monica Clinic. Vandal was watching the flies buzz helplessly against the serving window of the blood bank. The filthy insects always seemed to find their way in, but never did manage to get out again. Vandal muttered under his breath. It was almost too hot to think straight. The air conditioning down here didn’t work for shit. You’d think it would cool down a little during the night, but it hardly ever did.

“Yo, dude!”

Great, just what he needed. Vandal took a deep breath. “Hello, Knox,” he said, forcing a grin.

“Oh man, it’s been too long, dude,” Knox said, a gormless smile plastered on his face.

“Has it?” Vandal said blankly, but Knox wasn’t listening. He was leaning against the window eagerly.

“It’s been crazy right?” he laughed. “First all that shit with that Sarcophagus, then the prince gets blown to bits… I guess that Maximilian guy is running things now.”

Vandal didn’t answer. Knox didn’t need replies, he never shut up as it was. There wasn’t one of his fellow ghouls that Vandal could really stand, but Knox was a particular tax on his patience. Not only was he an excitable moron, the Nosferatu blood in his system made him prone to scheming for information. Vandal had never once fallen for his act and the fact that Knox still tried annoyed him no end.

“ _Man_ ,” Knox grinned. “My boss isn’t happy about it, neither is his boss. This Max dude is way smarter than LaCroix, you know.”

“What did you want again?” Vandal asked impatiently. He didn’t give a shit about politics and he couldn’t care less who ruled LA. Camarilla, Anarchs, it didn’t matter, they all bought blood. He guessed Knox wanted him to tell him what Therese thought about the current situation and he wasn’t going to humour him.

“What?” Knox said distractedly. “Oh, just a couple of blue blood packs. The boss sent me out to get some.”

Vandal silently gave him three blue blood packs and accepted his money.

“Thanks, man,” Knox grinned. “Hey, you – uh – don’t report all your clients to _your_ boss, do you?”

“Only if there’s something the Queen Bitch needs to know,” Vandal said coldly.

“Right,” Knox laughed uncomfortably.

Vandal knew why, but he didn’t give a toss. Ghouls never spoke disrespectfully of their regnants. Fledgling vampires hated their sires more often than not, but not ghouls. Ghouls were supposed to be…well, not like him.

“I’d appreciate it if you didn’t mention me to, ehm, _her_ ,” Knox said, trying to keep smiling in the face of Vandal’s icy smirk. “Her and the boss don’t really get along and word on the street is that she’s been real ticked off since her sister left.”

Vandal gave him a vacant stare. He couldn’t stand Knox and he couldn’t stand his endless chatter. In fact, if Knox had been the ghoul to a less important bloodsucker he would have had him in his chair and drained _months_ ago. When Therese had had her feud with Knox’ regnant Betram Tung he had secretly hoped she would order him to do something like that. But the Nosferatu were powerful allies and even more dangerous enemies and even when she was in a rage Therese never made a rash decision.

“Have you heard anything about that by the way?” Knox whispered eagerly. “About Jeanette coming back or something?”

“No,” Vandal said drily. He couldn’t even muster up the effort to lie.

To be honest, he hoped Jeanette _wouldn’t_ come back. Therese had told him she had sent her away for good. Vandal didn’t believe that for a second, but the fact was that she was gone now and Vandal hoped it would stay that way. Life was…easier for him without Jeanette. She was too changeable, not at all like Therese. Some days she had hated him and called him a leech. On some nights she accused him of poisoning the blood he brought her and her sister. On others she smiled at him and batted her eyes, asking him if he didn’t like her much better than Therese. Vandal _didn’t_ like her better than Therese, he was terrified of her. What he felt for Therese was exactly equal measures slavish love and vivid hate. But when Jeanette looked at him what he felt most of all was fear. Fear for her madness, that seemed so much more volatile than Therese’s, and fear for what she did to him. Because even though his mind cursed at him for his betrayal, his body responded to her like she was Therese. Her eyes were as enchanting, her blood smelled just as sweet. He always fought those feelings with everything he had and luckily Therese usually kept her sister away from him, but it still terrified him how close he was to submitting to Jeanette like he did to Therese. No, as far as he was concerned Jeanette could stay away forever.

“Alright, man,” Knox said. “Thanks for the stuff. I’ll see you around, yeah?”

“I can hardly wait,” Vandal sneered. He gave Knox a sickly smile and said: “You can always come back early if you feel like parting with some of your own life liquid.”

“Oh man,” Knox snickered. “You have too many names for the red stuff, you should get out more dude.”

“Thanks,” Vandal said sourly and he watched Knox disappear down the hallway.

He sat down with an exasperated grunt. It was still so fucking hot. This damn night shift took forever. Knox had been his only customer in hours. Vandal glanced at the clock. It was actually early morning by now. Only one more hour to sunrise. That probably meant no more vampire clientele until next night. He grimaced. Not even their addiction to his godly nectar was enough to make them risk being out by daybreak. For a few more minutes he managed to stay put and then Vandal gave up and decided to go get a drink in the break room. He really needed a breather.

To his displeasure the break room wasn’t empty. As if having to deal with Knox wasn’t enough crap for one night. Still, it wasn’t exactly _busy_ , there were only two people. Paige, one of the nurses, was there and she was talking to a young woman in a black suit he had never seen before.

“Vandal,” Paige said, surprised, but not displeased. “I should have known you’d still be here!”

“Ladies,” he nodded, forcing a smile.

He considered Paige to be an empty-headed nothing of a girl, but he always made sure to be nice to her. She was pretty and it did not do to be nasty to pretty girls. Especially pretty girls who were sleeping with the one of the principal surgeons of the hospital.

“This is Anna Deering,” Paige said, stepping aside. “She’s come to join the research team. Anna, this is Vandal Cleaver, he runs the blood bank.”

“Pleasure to meet you,” Anna said and she held out her hand.

Vandal looked her up and down real quick. Next to red-haired Paige with her shapely form she was nothing special, but she had obviously put care into her appearance. Her long hair was tucked neatly into a bun in a way that reminded Vandal unpleasantly of Therese. If she had been as pale as Paige she would have looked eerily like his mistress, even the clothes kind of fit. Her suit was clearly freshly pressed and fit her extremely well. It was expensive, too expensive.

“Sorry,” he said, with a smile that showed his teeth. “I don’t shake hands.”

“Shame,” Anna said, her eyes locking with his for a moment.

Vandal turned away from her. “I only came in here to get a drink,” he said, opening the fridge and taking out a bottle of water. “I’ll leave you ladies to your chat.”

“He’s an odd one,” he heard Paige say after he closed the door behind him. “Nice enough I think, but my friend Sarah says he gives her the creeps.”

He grimaced. Sarah was a frigid bitch. Just before he walked out of earshot he heard the research girl say: “He seems interesting, very…healthy.”

“Something wrong with that one,” Vandal muttered to himself. Research team… This place didn’t have a research team. There were a couple of morons that ran blood tests and the like, but that was it. If she was really here for research, with her expensive suit and her manicured nails, she would be the first.

He went back to work and sullenly waited for his shift to be over. When it was he went straight home and straight to bed. It had been years since the sunlight had still kept him up, by now he didn’t know any better than to sleep during the day.

♦♦♦

Therese Voerman liked to be on top of things and required Vandal to check in with her considerably more often than the necessary once a month. He always needed to make an appointment, however, if she didn’t summon him herself. The Asylum was the busiest club in Santa Monica and it was by no means Therese’s only business. She was always busy. Even so it was the rule rather than the exception that he met with her once every two weeks, either to bring her blood or to inform her about the state of affairs at the blood bank and this week was no different.

“I am pleased to hear that business is not slow,” Therese said, after looking over the figures Vandal had brought for her inspection.

“Not at all,” he said. “The crimson nectar of the gods is always in demand.”

“This little _unrest_ in the top ranks of the Camarilla may yet turn out to my advantage,” she said smugly. “Too many of the Ventrue showed their true colours when Maximilian took their precious Prince’s place. He is well aware now of how little of them he can trust.”

“All the more reason to place his faith in you, Miss Voerman,” Vandal whispered.

Therese looked at him and her lips curled into a smile. “Indeed,” she said with a self-satisfied hum.

He trembled while she looked at him and when she turned away his ribs seemed to contract around his heart. Standing with his hands behind his back, Vandal pressed the nails of his right hand into his left wrist. He tried to focus on the pain instead of on Therese. As long as he was in her presence it was impossible to think straight. He could feel the blood rushing to his head and there were voices hidden in its pulsing depth.

“Remind me, is it not your time to drink?” Therese asked suddenly.

Vandal’s heart leapt. The thought of tasting her blood again made him forget everything else. He wanted nothing more, but when he opened his mouth his strained voice answered meekly:

“Not for another week, ma’am.” He could no more lie to Therese than he could disobey her. Not while her eyes were fixed on him so brilliantly.

“You shall drink now,” Therese said. “I shall not have time for you again this week or the next.”

“You are not leaving?” Vandal blurted out. He was barely aware of how desperate he sounded, but the part of him that did hear, sent a stab of anger through his mind.

“That is none of your concern,” Therese said coldly. “You are to run the blood bank as usual. But I may not be here as often as I was before. If I am to impress upon Strauss how much a direct alliance with me would be to his benefit, I have to make myself seen as well as heard.”

Vandal bowed his head.

“Come,” Therese commanded and she beckoned him closer.

Eagerly he hurried towards her and watched with an increasingly dry mouth how she bit her own wrist with her ivory fangs. Therese held out her hand to him and he took hold of it, touching it as lightly as he could. He mumbled unintelligible words of thanks she did not listen to and then at last, finally, _mercifully_ pressed his mouth against her cold, white skin.

There was nothing that compared to drinking Therese’s blood. No pure, unadulterated sensation he had ever felt while still a human, no dark pleasure ever acquired as a ghoul, that was superior to it. The perverseness of it wasn’t lost on him. He knew his lips were touching deceased flesh, that he was swallowing dead blood, but it gave him life and as it slipped down his throat it filled him with a delicious warmth.

“Enough,” Therese said.

It was the only order Vandal could never obey. He simply couldn’t stop. She _knew_ he couldn’t and yet every time she demanded that he would, only to punish him when he failed to comply. With a sharp movement she pulled back her hand and pushed him away. He stumbled backwards miserably and muttered: “Forgive me, Miss Voerman.”

“Let me know how my business is doing,” Therese replied, ignoring his pleas. “I expect everything to go _perfectly_ during my absence.”

“How long will you be gone, ma’am?” Vandal asked, breathless.

“I will not be _gone_ ,” Therese snapped. “I shall be going about my business. Now get out of my sight.”

Vandal obeyed, scrambling back to the blood bank as fast as he could. He had to go back to drop off some things, but his shift was already over. Thankfully he didn’t run into anyone in the hallways. Vandal had trouble coming across as tolerably normal as it was, when he had recently drunk it was nearly impossible.

He went home, head still swimming and heart still pounding. No matter how often he went through this he could not get used to it. It was perfect ecstasy with a side of utter torment. Therese flowed through his veins, making him invincible and infallible. With every step he felt stronger, with every breath he felt lighter. But every step brought him further away from her and every breath he took was one not used to speak her name. _He was unworthy of her._

By the time he had locked his door behind him some of his thoughts were his own again. He was disgusted. He was furious. _He was flawless and Therese had made him so._ Vandal slammed his fist against the nearest solid object he could find. The force would have broken a human’s hand, but it was barely enough to give him enough pain to focus on. He let himself sink down on the cold floor and waited. Soon he would be in command of his own thoughts and feelings again, but for now there was nothing he could do except suffer through it. Over the years he had tried nearly everything, drugs, alcohol, whatever he could find, but nothing helped. Whatever he took, it only weakened his own control and strengthened Therese’s. He tried not to listen to the frantic voices in his head, singing her praises, and pressed his forehead against the cold floor. This was hell and Therese was his Hades and his Persephone. She was the very lifeblood in his veins and he fucking hated her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I always thought Vandal Cleaver was one of the most interesting side characters in Bloodlines. He is just so damn unhinged and messed up. Therese and Jeanette are by far my favourite vampire(s) and I’ve been thinking about this story for a long time. Since it has, under the kind encouragement of my best friend, turned into a bit of a novel, I have decided to upload it. I have no idea how much of a fanfic reading fanbase this old gem of a game has, but if there’s anyone out there that’s interested in this: I hope you’ll enjoy the most messed up story I’ve ever written.
> 
> P.S. Originally I had Vandal call Therese “mistress”, but in the email from the game he calls her “Miss Voerman” and I figured that ever professional Therese would prefer the more formal “ma’am”. It was actually the email that convinced me this ghoul was worth as story, coupled with the disdain he shows for her when you meet him at the blood bank it was just too interesting a contrast:
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> Isn't that just way too interesting? And if you want a song that I think sums up his relationship with Therese perfectly, look no further than [Ludo’s Love Me Dead.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_47Ktsu8jo&ab_channel=NathalieGustavsson%20)


	2. Next Up for the Needle

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Content warnings:** None, except the promised blood and needles.

The trick to messing with inventory was doing it methodically. Eligible victims were not always easy to come by and Vandal always had to top up his business supply with the hospital stock. He always took care never to take any type of blood that was likely to be in short supply though. If he could he only took O and A positive blood. Most of the bloodsuckers couldn’t care less about the label on the packs he sold them and as long as he made sure the hospital never ran short, nobody would bother to check on what he was doing. He was on his way back from the storage area to his office, trying to calculate how long his supply of blue blood packs would last him, when there were suddenly footsteps behind him.

“Hello.”

Vandal turned around, irritated at being disturbed. It was the research girl, Anna.

“Evening,” he said indifferently. “What do you want?” Why the hell was she here in the middle of the night?

“I’m just familiarizing myself with my new workplace,” she smiled cheerfully. “Care to show me around the blood bank?”

“Sorry,” he said with overwhelming insincerity. “Nobody allowed back her but me, those are the rules.”

“Just you?” she replied, her smile having faltered only for a moment. “Haven’t you got anybody to help you with your noble work?”

Vandal stared at her. Her choice of words sounded mocking, but her face displayed nothing but friendliness. Was she trying to make small talk? If she was one of those people that felt like they had to be on good terms with everyone, he'd better put a stop to that right now.

“There used to be a Phil,” he said sinisterly. “But he took a stroll into the dark one night and never came back. I really work best alone.”

Anna laughed softly as if that was nothing but a charming joke and gave a little shrug of her shoulders. “I see,” she said, taking a small step towards him. “Well, if you ever change your mind and would like some company, my new office is on the second floor.”

She gave him another cheerful smile and then slowly turned around and walked away, her low heels clicking on the hallway floor. Vandal watched her go with great suspicion. If he didn’t know better, he would think she was coming on to him. Still, she was new, maybe she just had a strange way of introducing herself to people. Silently Vandal resumed his work. His thoughts kept drifting back to Anna though. What was her last name again? Daring? He went to the computer and ran her name through a search engine. Nothing. Vandal scowled and after a moment’s hesitation he went to find Paige. She was busy sorting medication.

“Hey, Paige,” he said.

“Hey, Vandal, honey,” she said. “What are you doing out of your little cave?”

He chose to ignore that. “That new girl, the one who’s supposed to be doing research, where did she come from?” he asked.

“Anna?” Paige said. “I don’t know where she’s from but she told me she’s got a degree in biochemistry or something and has come here to research all kinds of ground-breaking stuff. Says she’ll get a grant to make it her PhD.”

“Really?” Vandal said sceptically.

“Yeah,” Paige said happily. “Malcolm is really excited about it, says it’ll be good for the hospital.”

“And what is her research on?” he asked, trying not to sound too interested.

“I couldn’t tell you,” Paige laughed. “I think she did say something about it, but I wasn’t really listening, nice girl though. Even if she could do with a bit of make-up.”

Vandal grimaced. He couldn’t care less what people did to their faces or if they wanted to look like themselves or not, but he disliked the fact that beauty products usually masked or altered a person’s natural smell. He liked being able to smell the unadulterated smell of a person’s skin. It was like smelling the cork of a good bottle of wine, it gave you an idea of the liquid inside it.

“Thanks,” he said flatly and turned away to leave Paige to her sorting. At the last moment he turned back and asked: “What did you say her last name was?” She hadn’t said, but Paige wouldn’t pick up on that.

“Deering,” Paige answered. “Funny name, ain’t it? Reminds me of ‘darling’. I bet every guy that’s ever gone with her called her that.”

She laughed at her own wit and Vandal walked off with a frown on his face. So it was _Deering_ , not Daring. He went back to his office and this time he went straight for her employment file in the hospital database. The digital security system here was a joke. He read her résumé and whistled between his teeth. Perelman School of Medicine. For a moment he supposed it must be fake. He glanced over her academic achievements and volunteer work and looked at her references. If she had faked it, she had done a remarkable job. No, as ridiculous as it seemed, it was actually more likely that it was true. In that case she was way, _way_ too good for the Santa Monica Medical Clinic. What the hell was she doing here? He clicked on her letter of application and read it through carefully. The sceptical smirk on his face slowly changed into one of confused amusement. It was a very pretty letter and clearly expertly written, but he could taste the scorn in it. Whatever she might have convinced the management of, Anna Deering knew she was too good for this place. Vandal sat back, absentmindedly gnawing at the inside of his cheek. He couldn’t imagine what she could possibly want here. Perhaps she had done something to disgrace herself elsewhere, or she was running away from something. Philadelphia was a long way away. He wondered if Therese knew about this girl. Therese usually pretty much ignored whatever the humans in the city were doing unless she could profit from it somehow.

He was about to open his web browser again when he heard footsteps in the hallway outside his donation window. Quickly he closed down his searches and documents and walked to the window with his usual vacant grin.

“Need a fix?”

♦

He was not going to see her because he was curious. He was going to see her because he needed to know what was going on in his hospital. Vandal was almost muttering to himself as he walked up the stairs to the second floor. It was all about chaos and control. This hospital was always full of chaos. They were understaffed, underfunded and they catered to a neighbourhood that was rather fond of too much alcohol and also fairly trigger happy. But all this chaos was predictable. Patients being given too little painkillers because some of them had disappeared into someone’s pocket was predictable. Doctors cheating on their wives with nurses was predictable. Patient files being stolen or sold to the press was predictable. As long as Vandal could count on the greed, weakness and stupidity of the people around him, he could control his environment. That was important to him. The chaos around him had to be his _own_ creation. After all, he had a business to run and a mistress to please. Anna Deering, so far, had behaved less than predictable and he couldn’t have that. Determinedly he paced through the hall, looking at the names at the door until he found hers: “A. Deering, MMS”. He knocked and went straight in without waiting.

“Hi,” Anna said, looking up at him from behind her desk. “What a nice surprise. Vandal Cleaver, right?”

He nodded and closed the door of her office behind him. She looked at him with genuine interest. When she didn’t say anything Vandal began: “I ran into Paige and she told me you’re here for PhD research.”

“That’s the plan,” she smiled.

“What are you researching?” he asked, eyes fixed on her rather intently.

Anna didn’t seem at all phased by this. “Why don’t you show me around the blood bank and I’ll tell you about it,” she said invitingly.

Vandal smirked. She sure was persistent. “I told you,” he said. “Not allowed.”

Her eyes were still fixed on his and something began to twinkle in them. “Really?” she said. “What if I wanted to make a donation?”

That caught him by surprise. The thought of this girl sitting down in front of him and offering him her arm for a needle made his mouth go dry for a moment. “You serious?” he asked scornfully.

“Of course I am,” she said, with the same, strange smile.

He hesitated. She was playing him. All she wanted was to get inside the blood bank. But for the life of him he couldn’t figure out why and...well, why shouldn’t he take her up on her offer? You could learn a lot from how someone handled being in an uncomfortable situation. This would give him an opportunity to observe her and whatever she thought she was getting out of this, he would probably get more.

“Alright,” he said. “Are you free now?”

“Of course,” Anna smiled. She pressed a few keys on her keyboard and when her computer went to the lock screen, she got up and followed him outside.

Vandal had expected her to talk, but she walked down to the blood bank with him in silence. He unlocked the door and Anna followed him inside, still without saying a word. He had expected her to at least look around, but she didn’t. She kept her eyes on him almost exclusively. He gestured to a chair and she sat down with a repressed smile. He made a show of fiddling with the equipment, but this didn’t make her nervous. She sat still very complacently and held out her arm, showing off a set of flawless nails. Vandal carefully took her wrist in his hand. His hands were cool compared to hers. He searched for a vein and as he leaned towards her he caught a whiff of her scent. She was pure, unspoilt, her blood was completely uncorrupted.

To Vandal’s surprise and considerable pleasure Anna looked away when he brought the needle to her skin. He had expected more composure from a clinical scientist. “You’re not afraid of needles, are you?” he chuckled.

“Would it matter if I was?” she replied archly.

He broke her skin. To his disappointment she did not react at all. She didn’t even flinch. He looked down on her and watched the blood drain into the tube. Her hairstyle was not that much like that of Therese after all, Vandal thought. Her hair was not smooth and perfect like Therese’s, it looked like it was desperate to escape from the knot it had been twisted into.

“So…” he said, with pretended nonchalance. “What _are_ you researching?”

“Blood,” she answered.

“ _Blood_?” he repeated tensely. Was that why she wanted access to the blood bank. Did she expect to be _working with him_?

“Diseases and defects of the blood more accurately,” Anna said smilingly.

Vandal regarded her suspiciously. “And why have you come to do that here?” he said.

“You think research positions are readily available and up for grabs?” she quipped.

He didn’t reply. With her credentials they would be, _should_ be anyway.

“Besides,” she said airily. “LA is not too bad.”

“You think so?” he smirked. She looked like she was used to much better. Whenever here eye fell upon something that proved the hospital in disrepair there was a slight twitch in her upper lip that gave away her displeasure. It was subtle, but it hadn’t escaped Vandal’s notice.

“I found a pretty nice place downtown,” she told him. “Not far from a place called the Confession, you know it?”

“Sure do,” he replied. It was about the only place in town that was relatively free of vampire interference.

“Well, if you feel like it, you could meet me for a drink there one of these nights,” she invited. “I’m probably going to be there on Friday evening.”

“I don’t go clubbing,” Vandal said blankly. Was she serious?

“Ah,” she smiled. “Just like you don’t shake hands. Pity.”

Vandal glanced at her. She was sitting placidly, not watching the blood drain out of her, but glancing idly through the room, usually looking at him. She was being friendly, but her friendliness was not empty, there was something of intent behind it that he could not quite make out.

“We’re almost done I think,” Anna hummed.

Vandal was surprised. She must have given blood before. Or attended donations, or she could not have been so accurate in guessing the time it would take. He moved towards her again and as he bent over her he breathed in her scent. It would be so easy to take a little more… No one knew she was here with him. The basement floor was deserted. She had sat down for him so sweetly, she let him put the needle in her arm… If he was quick she wouldn’t even have time to scream… No, no, mustn’t do that. _It's an ill little bird that fouls its own nest._ Silently he took the needle out of Anna’s arm and carefully sealed the bag of blood. She watched him with a strange smile, he forced one in return.

“Thank you for your donation,” he said, with only a trace of mockery.

“Thank you for taking such good care of me,” she said teasingly. “See you around.”

And with that she turned on her heels and walked out of the blood bank, head raised high. Her shoes clicked rhythmically on the floor and her steps were sure and steady. Apparently she was not even a little faint or woozy, or shew as exceptionally good at pretending she wasn’t. Vandal watched her go with a frown. She was clever, he thought, and _not_ to be trusted. He was certain that all that cheerful politeness was just an act. She had some sort of game to play  and he had the uncomfortable suspicion that it had at least _something_ to do with his blood bank. _Blood research_. She was going to be a pain, that much was certain.

Thoughtfully, he took up the bag of blood. This was good quality blood, excelletn quality in fact. He could ask top price for this. This was almost as blue as the copper sauce could get… Vandal hesitated. For a moment he stood perfectly still, then he quickly put the bag among the hospital’s stock instead of his own. He didn’t quite know why, but for some reason he couldn’t stand the idea of some filthy bloodsucker drinking that down. This way it would still be wasted, on some stupid human that wouldn’t even appreciate it, but somehow that seemed better this time.

After taking care of his equipment Vandal sat down behind the computer. He knew Anna’s full name now and also where she went to school. If there was anything to be found about her, he should be able to find it. When he typed in her full name, however, it wasn’t Anna that he found. “Richard Deering M.D.-Ph.D.” he read with mild surprise. He scrolled through the various articles. He was a surgeon, apparently a distinguished one, and certainly from Philadelphia. Her father perhaps? Yes, Dr. Deering was also a graduate of Perelman, it had to be her father. The name was too unusual for a coincidence. Eventually he did find something on Anna, but nothing more than her academic achievements. Nothing like a scandal or anything that might give her a reason to leave upper-class Philadelphia for a dump in Santa Monica. This didn’t mean she had come here voluntarily however, it only meant that whatever had brought her here hadn’t been publicized. There had to be _something_. Vandal tapped the desk impatiently. Until he found something on Anna that could help him understand her, it was probably best to avoid her. She had sought him out on purpose twice now. Granted, the second time he had first come to her. That had been a mistake and he wouldn’t make it again.

♦

If Vandal had expected Anna to come looking for him again, he was wrong. He did not see anything of her the rest of the week. His resolution of avoiding her was easily kept then, but he couldn’t resist trying to find out more about her. No one at the hospital seemed to know anything apart from what she had told them herself though. Frustrated and unwilling to admit to himself how much time he was willing to spend on figuring this girl out, he pushed her out of his mind for the time being. There were enough customers to keep him busy at least.

Then there was an unexpected email from Therese. She ordered him to close the blood bank early. Several kindred had been acting up and she wanted to remind them just how many aspects of the Santa Monica night life she ran. Vandal readily obeyed and was about to go home when he recollected that it was a Friday night. Involuntarily his thoughts turned to Anna. Would she be at the Confession now? The thought of her strutting round his hospital still plagued him. Everybody seemed to like her and _nobody_ seemed to have a clear idea of what she did. It was infuriating. He couldn’t stand not knowing something, but more importantly, he couldn’t afford it. Whatever she was up to, she was far too clever. Vandal had a lot riding on the stupidity and incompetence of the medical staff here and a ‘Miss Deering, MAS’ snooping around was the last thing he needed. She was too interested in the blood bank. Whatever that bullshit research of her entailed if she wanted access to the blood bank for it and the morons at the hospital board gave it to her, that could make life very difficult for him.

Vandal was still busy convincing himself this was a decision founded solely on reason when he entered the Confession with feelings closer to abhorrence than to anything else. It was slightly better than the Asylum, but that place had given him a disgust to all clubs. He looked round, if Anna was there she couldn’t be too hard to spot. Sure enough, there she was. Sitting at the bar. She wasn’t wearing her blazer, but was still far too formally dressed for her surroundings.

“Do you say you don’t do things, just to pleasantly surprise me?” Anna smiled when he sat down next to her. In truth she didn’t seem the least bit surprised, but she _did_ look rather pleased.

He didn’t reply. He still wasn’t entirely sure why he had even come. How would this help him find out what kind of scheme she was running? To his further surprise she didn’t seem bothered by his silence. She took a sip from her drink and smiled at him before casting her eyes around the room. In an attempt to make her uncomfortable he watched her closely. This hardly seemed to work. Amusement more than anything was foremost in her face. But at length it did make her speak.

“The sorry state of Santa Monica is a very good circumstance for a researcher like me,” she said. “The more patients, the more likelihood of someone with a blood deficiency or disease that pertains to the subject of my research. It is a rather morbid thing to be happy about, so much suffering, but that is the paradox of the medical scholar.”

Vandal blinked.

Anna smiled. “I presume at least that you came here to ask me why I came to _your_ hospital?” she said. She looked at him with gently twinkling eyes. “You’ve been asking people about me. Almost _everyone,_ in fact.”

This didn’t seem to vex her at all. On the contrary, she seemed positively pleased by it.

“So you came here looking for subjects?” Vandal said, seeing no reason to deny he wanted information.

“That implies I would have something to do with them,” she shook her head. “No, at the moment I am merely after data. Lots of it. And the Santa Monica Medical Clinic sure is busy.”

He gave her a hard look. She was…not telling the truth. He could not say with certainty that she was lying, but she was certainly not telling the truth. Her words were too polished, too carefully chosen. He sank into a sullen silence.

They sat like that for some time more, neither of them saying much. Vandal was irritated and conflicted, Anna seemed perfectly content. Eventually she said it was time for her to go home. Vandal rose with her and they walked outside, the cool night air welcoming them pleasantly. Vandal still hadn’t made up his mind about Anna, and was rather surprised when she suddenly turned towards him and came to stand right in front of him. She was almost touching him.

“Thank you, Vandal,” she said tenderly.

“For what?” he asked, narrowing his eyes at her.

“For keeping me company,” she said. “That was really sweet of you.”

He stared at her, but said nothing.

She laughed softly. “Since you don’t strike me as the type of guy that walks women home I’ll give you your good-night kiss right now,” she said and before he had time to react she had leaned towards him and pressed her lips against his.

Vandal’s entire body tensed up. Anna was warm and her lips were soft. He could feel her breath on his face. He could smell her. He could almost taste her. Just before he opened his mouth Anna pulled away, smiling at him like she was pleased with him, herself and the world in general.

“Good night,” she said. “I’m sure I’ll see you again at the hospital.”

She gave him one last satisfied look and walked away, leaving behind a completely astonished and increasingly furious Vandal.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Isn’t Anna a sweetheart? So appreciative.
> 
> I am aware that this isn’t how donating blood works. You need to get registered and tested first (at least where I’m from) and that takes a couple of weeks, but I didn’t want to slow down the story and Vandal isn’t a stickler for protocols anyway.
> 
> By the way, to get this story properly on the way I will upload the first 5 chapters daily, after that it will be weekly uploads. Thanks for reading!


	3. Sleep Tight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Content warnings:** Non-explicit sexual content.

_Sweet smells were all around him and his hands grasped something cold. It was a needle._

_“You’re not going to hurt me, are you?”_

_He looked into Anna’s pouting face. He was most definitely going to hurt her… He reached out to touch her, but suddenly she was on her feet and twisting around him. When he faced her again she looked just like Therese. He shivered and felt himself shrink until he was sitting down in a chair. Now it was Anna holding the needle, but as soon as she bent towards him her hair escaped its bun and tumbled silken down her face. Vandal inhaled her scent and she pressed her lips to his with a triumphant smile._

He woke up with a start. For a moment he was disoriented. As soon as he realized what had happened he was downright pissed. He was used to dreams far more fucked up than this, but this was the _second_ time he had dreamt about Anna. This had to stop _now_. He couldn’t let that girl get under this skin like this. With an angry grunt he dragged himself out of bed. The last couple days had been a drag. The blood bank was still closed as per Therese’s orders, but that didn’t stop the bloodsuckers and ghouls from coming to his window. Usually he didn’t even go out, but some of them made a ruckus and then he had to. Yesterday one of the damn Ventrue had Dominated him to force him to give them blood anyway. He hadn’t been strong enough to resist them, but he _had_ been aware of it. This was not a positive thing. It was better to be ignorant when someone decided to take your free will from you and it had left him in a foul mood. The fact that he couldn’t get a decent day’s sleep wasn’t helping.

Vandal went to the hospital a couple hours early. Maybe during normal working hours Anna _would_ be in her office working. During most of _his_ working hours she seemed to be idly strolling about, snooping around the hospital and smiling at him like they were sharing a joke whenever he accidentally ran into her. Her supervisor must not pay really close attention to her. Did she even have a supervisor? He wouldn’t put it past the morons that ran this hospital to just let her do whatever she wanted and wait patiently for the miracles she had promised to produce. Fucking idiots.

The lights in Anna’s office were on and Vandal went in without knocking. Anna looked up, but she had hardly risen from her seat when Vandal was already at her desk.

“Look here, princess,” he growled. “I don’t know what you want from me, but I have the feeling that I’m getting played and I don’t _like_ it.”

Anna looked at him, not at all intimidated, and smiled. “I’m sorry,” she said. “Do you want to do the playing next time?”

Vandal snarled at her. He wanted to snap her neck, make her stop smiling, make her stop looking at him like that. _Nobody_ looked at him like that. He could smell her. He could smell her everywhere. She _smiled_ at him. Why was she _always_ fucking smiling? Anna made the slightest movement towards him and something snapped in Vandal’s mind. He grabbed Anna’s face with both his hands and kissed her. Her mouth didn’t need to be forced open and he tasted her hungrily. He felt her hands on his chest, against the back of his neck, in his hair. She was intoxicatingly warm and soft. She was- With a start Vandal let her go and stepped back in horror.

Anna gasped for breath and leaned against her desk. Her hair had come undone slightly. She touched her lips with her fingers and looked at him. “Well,” she said breathlessly. “Does that make us even?”

He stared at her. His skin was on fire. The voices in his head were screaming and his body was furiously demanding more. This was awful. This was terrible.

He turned around and left without saying a world. Heart pounding, blood racing. He hadn’t felt this alive in ages. Fucking hell she tasted amazing. No, that was just the deprivation talking. Ever since Hannah had disappeared he had had a bit of a dry spell. Finding a new escort was going to be a bother and he had put it off. Another mistake, it seemed. Vandal was furious with himself. All those demure little smiles and impeccable clothes. Anna was nothing but a little tease. She had been planning this from the start and she knew _exactly_ what she was doing to him.

♦

Vandal actively avoided Anna again after that. But he questioned people with even more intent than before. Not about her research this time. Everybody said the same anyway. That she was doing blood research. That she wouldn’t let anyone help her. There was nothing new in that. This time he poked and prodded to hear the hospital gossip. Still, there didn’t seem to be a lot of it about Anna. She was liked. She was friendly to everyone below her, polite to everyone else. But then there came a single piece of salacious news. Apparently, she had turned down the advances of two doctors. That was the last thing Vandal had expected to hear. He had finally decided that Anna was the kind of woman who kept up a wholesome image, but slept around to get a hold on people. Why else would she come on to him? There was nothing he could do for her. But if she wanted to better her position in the hospital, turning down doctors was hardly a clever move. He didn’t understand it and he didn’t trust it. She had something to hide and if she was only interested in _him_ , that meant she wanted something from him. But knowing all that didn’t change the fact that _he_ now also wanted _her_. God how he wanted her.

It took him absolutely all his self-control to stay away from her, but he managed. Therese was back in Santa Monica for a few days and he immediately offered to bring her a new supply of blood. She told him to bring double the amount he usually did. Vandal was glad he had some fresh blue blood packs put by. Anything of lesser quality he wouldn’t dare to offer to Therese.

The Asylum was even busier than normal and the music as loud and obnoxious to match. Therese was not in a good mood. She snapped at Vandal for being late and he stood silently listening to her fuming until she began to talk of the loneliness of superiority and the things she had to put up with for her city. Ever since her sister had left, she had been more and more like this. More volatile, less composed. Or maybe she had formerly unloaded these feelings on Jeanette and they were spilling out because she couldn’t anymore. Vandal didn’t know and he didn’t care. As long as Therese talked he was deaf to any other sound in the world and he listened to her with his whole being.

His head was still full of her when he walked out of the elevator and back into the frantic noise and light of the club. He was already heading towards the exit when his legs promptly stopped moving. Anna was standing at the bar. She was talking cheerfully to a girl and admiring her afro. Vandal stared at her, not knowing what to do. Or rather not knowing how. He knew he had to get out before she saw him, but he didn’t make the slightest effort to move. He had to go. Now. Get out. Now. He had to, he _had_ to, he had to know what she was doing here. No, no, he shouldn’t. Before he could make sense of his thoughts Anna looked past her companion, saw him and smiled. Vandal still didn’t move. She slid off her barstool and came towards him. Even through the crowded smell of sweat and alcohol he could smell her.

“I thought you didn’t like clubs,” she teased. “And here I meet you in one a second time.”

“Not here for the club,” he answered, sounding more than a little strained.

“Ah…” she said. She was coming even closer. “Can I have a dance all the same?” she asked, laying a playful hand on his shoulder.

He shook her off. It was a reflex and he was damn thankful for it.

“Sorry,” she said, retracting her hand and turning away. “I’ll leave you alone.”

Before she could walk away he reached out and grabbed her hand. He hadn’t meant to, it just happened. “You shouldn’t be here,” he hissed. He could _not_ have her here. She could not be in the Asylum. Not near Therese. This was his damn place of work. Even more so than the clinic.

Anna turned back to look at him. “Where _should_ I be then?” she asked playfully.

“I mean it,” he snarled. “You don’t want to hang around looking pretty in a place like this.” He abruptly let go of her.

A sarcastic smile passed across Anna’s face. “What?” she said in a playfully lowered voice. “Is this the kind of place where girls get taken advantage of?”

He didn’t answer.

“Don’t worry about me, Vandal” she smiled. “I’ll be fine.”

 _How dare she speak his name like that_. “I want you to _leave_ ,” he said roughly.

Therese might see her. Might _smell_ him on her. Might…

“Make me,” Anna laughed and she moved away with a dancing step.

Vandal grabbed her again, this time by her wrist, and did a step towards her. He was vaguely aware of the girl at the bar turning her head to get a better view of him. He lowered his head a little to hide his menacing expression. “Don’t think that I couldn’t,” he snarled at Anna.

He never showed his strength to anyone, but now he gave a little of it away, tightening his grip on her wrist. Anna stared at him, but he thought she looked fascinated rather than intimidated. And there was something besides fascination. Something that made Vandal very uncomfortable. Triumph?

“Are you going to let go of me or not?” she asked amusedly.

“Not until you promise to get out of here,” he hissed.

He was afraid Therese might come downstairs and see him with her. If she did she would want to know who she was and what he was doing with her and he had no satisfactory answer to either question.

“Hm,” Anna hummed.

She moved and Vandal thought she was going to fight him, but instead she just wrapped her free arm around his neck and kissed him. Before he knew what he was doing he kissed her back. He couldn’t help it. She tasted like…like… With a shock he realized where he was and what he was doing. Furiously he pushed Anna away, stared at her and then dragged her out of the club. She almost had to run to keep up with him, but still took the time to flutter her free hand merrily at the girl at the bar. He even thought he heard laughter over the music.

When they were outside he stopped and turned her towards him with considerable force. “Don’t fucking _do_ that,” he snapped.

“Why not?” she laughed. He was sure he must have hurt her, but she didn’t show either fear or discomfort.

“Because it’ll attract attention,” he hissed.

“You’re the one making a scene,” she said teasingly.

He let out an annoyed growl and started walking again. He was still holding on to Anna’s wrist and she was trailing behind him without the least resistance.

Vandal stopped and took a deep breath. His mind felt clouded. He had to do something. In an impulse he hailed a cab. It stopped in front of them and waited.

“Get in,” he ordered.

“Fine,” Anna said, unconcerned.

She moved towards the cab. Vandal let go of her, but she reached out and grabbed him playfully by his shirt. With one swift movement she sat down and pulled him into the cab with her. He was too surprised to struggle. Anna leaned forward and told the cabby an address. _His_ address.

“How do you know where I live,” Vandal said, staring at her with angry suspicion.

“I looked you up the first night I met you,” she laughed softly.

Vandal stared at her with nothing but distrust. Well, almost nothing but distrust. She was sitting too close to him, it was making it hard to think. He tried to push the feeling of her kissing him out of his mind. He knew she was doing all of this on purpose, but that didn’t make it any less effective.

“You don’t have to look so angry,” she pouted. “What was I supposed to do? Tell him _my_ address and let you find out where _I_ live _?_ ”

That was bullshit. _She_ pulled him into the cab with her. Besides if there was one thing this crazy woman was _not_ , it was afraid of him.

Anna laughed. “With all this effort you’ve put into intimidating me the least I can do is pretend to be scared,” she teased.

“If this is you pretending to be scared you’re a crap actress,” he snarled, but he suspected she was an excellent one. That was the whole trouble.

“How do you know?” she said with twinkling eyes. “Maybe this _is_ me being scared…” She leaned towards him and Vandal stared at her.

She was riling him up and it was working. He had never met someone so…so…infuriatingly frustrating. “Get off me,” he growled.

Anna moved immediately, retreating to the other side of the cab. Silently she leaned against the door, resting her head against the window. Her sudden compliance came completely unexpected for Vandal. Why would she be like that, purposefully pushing and pulling and coming on to him and then suddenly obeying him without a word? He tried to ignore the pang of dissatisfaction he felt when her body heat and smell moved out of his reach. Involuntarily he stared at Anna. She didn’t look back at him. She was intently looking out of the window. Almost as if his rejection had actually hurt her. He could see her mirrored in the window and the dark outside, until her breath began to condense on the glass. She was breathing deeply enough for him to see her chest rise and fall as she did so.

“You’re staring…” Anna informed him calmly, without looking at him.

Vandal blinked. He refused to stop looking at her though. She was just so…so goddamn _alive_. Yes, she made him angry, but it was a heated, interested anger. Not the dull grey glow of disgust and low-grade contempt he felt towards everything and everyone. This was a far better quality of anger and it was heating him up inside.

“Well,” Anna said, a smile ghosting around her lips. “You did say I was pretty.”

She wasn’t expecting a response and Vandal gave her none. When had he said she was pretty? He didn’t remember, it didn’t fucking matter. Of course he thought she was pretty. He had eyes, didn’t he? Of all the human impulses he had been able to stifle, attraction had never been one.

“Here we are,” the cabby said loudly.

Anna looked up and turned her face towards Vandal. Her eyes suddenly seemed very large.

“Goodnight, Vandal,” she said gently.

Something about the way she said his name made a shiver run down his back. He didn’t move. Anna looked back at him silently. Without saying a word Vandal got out his wallet, pulled out a couple bills and handed them to the cabby. Anna was still looking at him. He could feel his heart thump in his ears.

“You want me to come with?” Anna asked softly. “All you have to do is ask…”

Something in Vandal snapped and his hand moved without further interference of his brain. The next moment he was out the cab and pulling Anna through his front door by her hand. Anna closed the door behind them with a thump and laughed at him.

“I thought you wanted me to get off you?” she said. “Would you like to change the order of that sentence?"

“Shut up,” Vandal growled and he pulled her towards him. Right now slapping the smile off Anna’s face and tearing her clothes off seemed equally satisfying to him and for a moment he convinced himself that he hadn’t decided which to pick yet. And then Anna kissed him again and he gave up.

♦

He woke up in the afternoon. For a moment he was disoriented and then he remembered.

“Fuck,” he grunted and he sat up in bed. Aside from himself, it was empty. The bed still smelled like her, but Anna was definitely gone. Vandal was positive she had been right beside him when he fell asleep. Why the fuck did he fall asleep? He looked over at the clock on his nightstand and saw a neatly folded note lying beside it. With a frown he snatched it up and unfolded it.

“That was lovely. Sleep tight. X”

Vandal stared at the curly handwriting. _Lovely_. _Sleep tight_. He scowled at the elegantly crossed ‘X’. A fucking _kiss?_ What the ever-loving fuck what this? Was she trying to be cute? Vandal didn’t even know why he was angry, but he was too pissed off to stop and think about it. He got up and got dressed as quickly as he could. Who the hell did that woman think she was? Pull that stunt at the Asylum, come home with him and then leaving him a damn note on his nightstand? Signed with a _kiss_? He slammed the door behind him and stomped to his car. There was a stupid mixer at the hospital today. Staff of different levels and departments mingling, that type of stuff. It was exactly the kind of gathering Vandal normally avoided like the plague, but he was certain Anna would be there and he needed to set some things straight.

The parking lot was full of expensive cars belonging to expensive people that hardly ever came here. Vandal hated the hospital during the day. It was too crowded. Some people were surprised to see him, but only the people that worked the night shift themselves and knew how unsociable he was, he had every right to be here. Technically this was supposed to be a great mingling of hierarchy. Or in other words, four hours of complete and utter bullshit. Vandal ignored everyone and everything around him, all he wanted was to find Anna.

As soon as he spotted her in the crowded conference room he fixed his eyes on her and waited. All she had to do now was ignore him. If she ignored him, he’d understand. Some girls were like that after all, couldn’t turn down a challenge. He had been rude to her and that had made her want to see if she could get him. Now she had gotten what she wanted her interest in him would vanish. That would be logical, at least to a certain degree. He could deal with that.

Anna turned around and happened to look in his direction. Her eyes met his and Vandal glared at her. All he wanted from her at that moment was denial. If she would just look away and pretend he she did not see him, he would know her perverse interest in him was over and that the world was once again as it should be. Anna smiled and moved towards him. Vandal cursed inwardly. He didn’t _understand_.

“Hi!” Anna said cheerfully. “I didn’t know you’d be here.”

Vandal grimaced and hissed: “What the fuck is your deal?”

Anna looked surprised, almost innocent, but Vandal was certain there was an amused gleam in her eye. “Sorry?” she said.

“Last night, what was that about?” he hissed. “And that fucking note.”

“The note was _after_ ,” Anna said with an arch smile.

Vandal scowled and Anna took a small step back with a pacifying, demure expression. “You were asleep,” she explained. “I didn’t want to wake you, but I didn’t want to leave without a trace.” She offered him another teasing smile. “I didn’t want you to worry.”

“ _Worry_?” he growled.

Anna’s mouth twitched. “Perhaps not, hm? She laughed. “Well, then I didn’t want to be rude.”

Vandal couldn’t tell if she was lying or not. She seemed sincere though and that pissed him off even more. He crossed his arms and said snidely: “If you were _worried_ about that why’d you sneak out in the middle of the night like a guilty little-”

Anna’s eyes were fixed on him rather intently and he didn’t finish his sentence.

She let the silence that fell carry on for a bit before she said airily: “I know, very unladylike of me. But I make a point of _not_ sleeping with the people I sleep with.”

Vandal raised an eyebrow. She met his gaze silently without any visible shame or shyness.

“Usually women need to be paid to leave,” he snarked.

This time he had the satisfaction of seeing a flicker of displeasure on her face. It soon mingled with amusement, however, and she laughed softly: “Well, lucky you.” She glanced past him and said: “I see some suits I should be talking to before I leave.”

Vandal sullenly followed her gaze and saw some of the hospital directors standing with glasses in their hand. “Hm,” he growled. “And I suppose you don’t want anything from _them_ either?”

Anna laughed. “Oh no,” she said. “I want a _whole_ lot of things from them.”

She flashed him a conspiratory smile that he returned with a perplexed stare.

“Wish me luck!” she whispered. For a moment she seemed to be glancing around to see if anyone was looking at them and then suddenly, before Vandal could react, she gave him a quick kiss on the cheek and moved past him towards the directors.

Vandal felt his face burn, as much from anger as from anything else. _Why?_

“Nice, man!”

Vandal blinked. A young nurse was grinning at him, seemingly having appeared out of nowhere.

“ _What_?” he snapped.

“That chick just now!” the nurse said in the same congratulatory tone. “You hitting that?”

“No,” Vandal replied through clenched teeth. “That sounds like I’d be going back for seconds.”

The nurse laughed. “That’s savage, dude,” he snorted. He sounded impressed.

Vandal watched him with thinly veiled disdain as the nurse looked at Anna, who was talking to the directors with a straightforward, professional air. The way she stood and the confident gestures of her hands reminded Vandal of Therese. The resemblance was only very slight, but Vandal’s mind never needed much prompting to drift to Therese. She _did_ look like Therese. _She smelled nothing like Therese._

“They do say that the uptight chicks can be the freakiest,” the nurse grinned, intruding on Vandal’s unwelcome reflections.

Vandal thought back to last night and deigned not to reply.

“So, you think I have a shot with her?” the nurse asked.

Vandal grimaced. “Why not?” he said. “She obviously has bad taste.”

The nurse roared with laughter and slapped him on the shoulder. Vandal resisted the urge to rip his arm off.

“Thanks man,” the nurse grinned and walked in Anna’s direction.

Vandal wanted to leave, he really did, but in spite of himself he sat down and watched how the nurse prepared his attack on Anna. Vandal was a little disappointed the young man seemed to be waiting for Anna to finish her conversation. It would have been funnier to him to see Anna react to his advances in front of the directors. Perhaps it would have annoyed her enough to actually make her angry. If she was even capable of expressing anger on that damn sweet face. Vandal didn’t know why the hell she was attracted to him, but he was pretty sure she’d shoot down that nurse as fast as the propositions could leave his mouth.

Anna finished her conversation. The directors left, taking leave of her so cordially that Vandal was sure she had gotten what she wanted. It seemed to him that she always did. Spoiled little princess.

The nurse made his move as soon as Anna turned around and saw him. He greeted Anna like he already knew her and she drew back instantly. The distaste on her face almost made Vandal laugh out loud. The nurse didn’t seem to pick up on it, however, and did his best to engage Anna in conversation. Vandal watched intently. He was very unwilling to ask himself why, but it was incredibly satisfying to him to see Anna blow off the nurse without hesitation. The young man retreated sulkily and Anna turned around and looked straight into Vandal’s face. He smirked. She walked back over to him and tapped him accusingly on his chest.

“Why’d you do that?” she asked, clearly at least a little annoyed.

About time, Vandal thought. “Do what exactly?” he replied smoothly.

“Send that…pup my way,” she clarified, sitting down in a chair beside him.

He snorted. “Dogs don’t need encouragement to chase after a b-”

“Is it because you wanted to prove we weren’t dating?” Anna interrupted. “Because if so that backfired on you.”

Vandal shut his mouth abruptly.

Anna was almost laughing. “Because now…” she said. “He just thinks you get off on seeing other guys flirt with me.”

“You told him that?” Vandal sneered.

“I didn’t say a thing,” Anna grinned. “I didn’t deny anything either…” She scooted a little closer to him. “After all, he was almost right. You just get off on seeing me turn _down_ other guys. Details…”

She turned to get up and move away but Vandal stopped her.

“Now what?” she laughed, sitting back down.

“What is it you want?” he demanded.

“What makes you think I want something?” she said. “I’ve already told you I don’t want anything from you in particular.”

“Why would a posh chick like you be interested in me? For my charming personality? Oh no, I won’t make that mistake again.”

“Don’t sell yourself too short,” she smiled.

“What is it?” Vandal insisted. “Do you want something with the blood bank?”

“If I wanted access to your blood bank I could have asked the management, they _love_ me,” Anna smirked. “Or rather, they love the illusion that I’m going to put this hospital on the map.”

He scowled at her.

“No,” she said lightheartedly. “I just like you, sorry.”

She smiled sweetly at his frozen expression and gave his arm a playful squeeze. She was about to turn away when something sparked in her eyes. “Oh, before I forget,” she said, putting her hand in the pocket of her blazer. She took out a business card and slipped it into his hand.

Vandal was too baffled to refuse it.

“This is a networking event after all,” Anna winked and this time she really did walk away. “See you later…”

♦

Later turned out to be that same week. Anna caught Vandal getting ready to go home after a night shift and instead of listening to her small talk he said bluntly:

“I’m going home. Were you planning on coming with?”

“If that’s an invitation, sure,” Anna smiled, not in the least indignant. “ _I’m_ up for seconds.”

He grimaced. He ought to break that nurse’s jaw. Anna was laughing at him. Vandal gave her a strange look. She didn’t seem at all offended. Was she serious? Did she really want to come home with him again? She had been chatty, but now she was silently. Seemingly waiting patiently for him to make up his mind, an amused smile on her lips. He wavered. It had been a frustrating shift, he could use some relaxation…

“Why are you even here still?” he asked.

“I forget the time,” she said dismissively.

Vandal regarded her silently for a moment. He wasn’t trying to decide whether to trust her or not. He was trying to decide whether the fact that he didn’t trust her in the slightest was enough to overrule how much he wanted to screw her.

Anna smiled and said: “I see how it is. Well, I’ll leave you be. Good night, Mr Cleaver.”

Her voice wasn’t grave, it was playful, and she closed her sentence by leaning forward and pressing a kiss on the edge of his cheek and the corner of his mouth. Before she could pull away Vandal involuntarily raised his hand and grabbed her by the back of her neck. He kissed her hungrily and Anna closed the distance between their bodies, standing as close to him as she could without pressing up against him. Vandal let go and gave her a hooded look. If she was really into this, he was a fool for passing up the opportunity.

“Come on then,” he growled and turned abruptly to the door.

Anna followed him in silence, with a self-satisfied smile on her face. She was quiet during the drive to his apartment. Vandal didn’t say anything either, he focussed on driving. As much as he could focus at all. Half of his mind was cursing at him for letting this woman play him like this and the other was thinking of everything he wanted to do to her. Last time had been over too quickly…

As soon as the door of his apartment closed behind them Anna’s arms were around him.

“Little too eager aren’t we, princess?” he said, grinning into the kiss Anna pressed on his lips.

“Less talk, more fucking,” she commanded.

Vandal grabbed her, turned her around and pinned her against the nearest wall. She let out a startled breath and stared at him.

“We’ll get to that, princess,” he smirked. “I’m going take my _time_ this time around though.”

Her eyes sparked. He let go of her and moved away, shrugging off his coat and kicking off his shoes.

“Loosen your hair,” he ordered.

“Why, it’ll get everywhere,” Anna protested impatiently, throwing her coat and blazer onto a chair.

Vandal turned around. That damn tight bun still looked too much like Therese’s. “You let me worry about that,” he said.

Anna raised her eyebrows at him. He smirked and stood, just looking at her. She relented, with the minutest smile on her lips. Slowly she unravelled her bun, tucking hair ties and pins in the pockets of her jacket. Finally she lifted her hair with her hands and shook her head so it tumbled messily past her face.

“Better?” she asked.

“Perfect,” Vandal grinned.

♦

It was at least an hour before either of them spoke a proper sentence again.

“Well fuck, princess,” Vandal chuckled. “You sure can scream.” He let go of Anna’s hair and released his grip on her hip. He was sure there would be bruises where his fingers had dug into her body.

Anna made an unintelligible noise and nearly fell forward into the mattress. Vandal savoured the sight of her, completely undone. She rolled onto her back, still short of breath.

“Always nice to have a woman who is vocal about what she likes, “ he smirked, letting himself fall down beside her. He sprawled out lazily, relishing the complete relaxation that came after his entire body being tensed up. It was blissfully quiet in his head, he could hear only himself.

Anna made the occasional appreciative sound, but didn’t speak until her breathing had gone back to normal. Then she lifted her legs off the mattress to stretch them and groaned softly. “You are terribly hard on my legs,” she teased. “If I didn’t know any better I’d think you’d want to prevent me from leaving.”

Vandal didn’t answer. He looked at her as she got up and looked around for her clothes. Silently he watched her getting dressed. She was as attractive now he was sated as when he had still been rearing to get at her. That was a little annoying, it was unusual.

“What’s sexier,” Anna asked, drawing on her stockings. “Getting dressed or getting undressed?”

“All the same to me,” Vandal answered without thinking about it.

“Really?” she said, putting her hair up in a ponytail. “That surprises me. You’re so _particular_ about other things.”

He was too sleepy and satisfied to even give her a scornful look.

“Good morning,” she said with a smile. “Sleep tight.” She blew him a kiss and padded out of the room. A minute later he heard the clicking of her short heels and the opening and closing of the door.

And with that, he thought, she was gone again. He glanced at the clock. They had been at it for a long time. He had not expected this to happen. No matter how Anna acted he had still thought all she really could have felt towards him was curiosity and that should have been sated after the first time. Well, whatever she needed or wanted, she was gone now. It was no use agonizing over it right this instant. He closed his eyes. He had never had a woman who came so close to keeping up with his ghoulish stamina. Anna must be fitter than she looked, or have a rather high pain threshold. He yawned. His whole body was absolutely humming with contentment. Vandal fell asleep before any new thoughts could come to plague him.

♦

The streets of LA were bleak in the pale morning light, but Anna looked rosy and lovely. She walked to the nearest cab hail with a smile on her face. If all ghouls were like that in bed it seemed almost a waist to destroy the race. She had never known… As she got in the cab she couldn’t repress a grin as she told herself that there was certainly more to Vandal than it had seemed the first time. He was a lot more talented than she’d given him credit for. So much the better, she loved combining business and pleasure. She gave the cabby her address downtown and sat back with a satisfied sigh. The driver glanced back at her and she looked back unabashed. She knew she looked mussed up and she didn’t care. She was feeling triumphant. Some guys were impossible to get rid of, but other’s took a lot of drawing in, those were the fun ones. Vandal was a fun one. Anna closed her eyes and remembered something the girls used to tell each other at college: _once is a fling, twice is a thing, thrice and you’ve gotten under his skin._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I rarely write sexual content and I never write about casual sex at all so this is uncharted territory for me. This story won’t be all fades to black but I figured this was a good starting point.
> 
> Shout-out to the guest who left kudos! It's much appreciated :)


	4. Pillow Talk

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Content warnings:** None (I won't warn for sexual content that is more tame than previous chapters.)

“Hi,” Anna said, sitting down next to Vandal in the break room.

He had not heard her coming and was dangerously close to physically starting. He converted his involuntary movement in an angry shove at the table. “What do you _want_ from me, woman?” he snapped.

“Look,” Anna said with an exasperated sigh. “You really don’t need to pretend to be happy to see me and I’m not going to sulk that you never called me, but could you at least stop interrogating me every time I see you?” He was still scowling at her and she pulled a face “I have this thing where I like to occasionally _talk_ to someone if I’m sleeping with them. Not too much of a sacrifice I think, but if you have a problem with it…”

He gave her a curt stare. It wasn’t even that her presence annoyed him. Strangely enough it wasn’t what she _did_ that got on his nerves. He just couldn’t stand not understanding. “I wouldn’t have a problem with it if you were sleeping with the rest of the hospital as well,” he grunted.

“I don’t _want_ to sleep with the rest of the hospital,” Anna said airily.

“And why the fuck do you want to sleep with me?” he demanded, trying to keep the anger out of his voice.

“Because you’re good at it?” she said, giving a little shrug.

He gave her a deadpan stare.

“I mean it,” she smiled. “You’re very…creative.”

He looked away, but Anna had seen the slight change of colour in his face and she clearly delighted in it.

“I like that thing you do with my hair…” she said, lowering her voice enough to be sure no one overheard her.

Vandal stared at her. Her face was the perfect mix of innocence and sin. God if she didn’t turn him on like hell.

“When does your shift end tonight?” she asked teasingly.

♦

Anna rolled off Vandal, panting and cooing. Vandal took big gulps of air, working his way down through his swimming head. If every conversation he had with her from now on ended like this, he might actually consider learning to live with ignorance.

“Next time I’m putting my hair in a braid,” Anna said decisively.

He disagreed strongly with that but something in her tone of voice actually made him laugh. She laughed with him, careless and content.

“You’re a freak,” he said, still chuckling.

“Psha,” Anna panted. “Nothing freaky about that. That was bloody wonderful.”

Vandal grinned. “It’s freakier than you know…” he said sinisterly.

Anna pushed her hair out of her face and looked at him. “Why?” she said. “Because you’re a ghoul? Cause that’s not nearly enough to make it freaky.”

Vandal froze.

She smiled archly at him. “What?” she teased.

“What do you know about that?” he snapped. Whatever he had expected, this wasn’t it. How the fuck did she know about this and more importantly: why didn’t it bother her?

“I know enough to know you are one,” she said lightheartedly and she sat up to get off the bed.

Vandal grabbed her shoulder and yanked her back with considerable force. Anna made a protesting noise and her eyes fixed on him disapprovingly. For a split second she almost looked scared, but it was gone immediately.

“ _You’re_ not one,” he said harshly.

“A ghoul?” Anna said. “No.”

“Then what the _fuck_ do you know about it,” he growled.

She sat up again, but this time without the intention of leaving and Vandal didn’t stop her. Every fibre in his body was on edge though, and thoughts were racing through his head.

“I do blood research, Vandal,” Anna said, a touch snarkily. “It _is_ relevant to my interests.”

“But you have nothing to do with…them,” he asked. He had gone beyond suspicious and straight into paranoid now. It was very rare, but some vampires employed and trusted humans without actually turning them into ghouls.

“Vampires?” Anna asked brazenly.

Vandal hissed.

“No,” she said.

“Then _don’t_ talk about them,” Vandal said sharply. “Don’t fucking breathe a _word_ about ghouls or bloodsuckers or _anything_ like it. That shit will get you killed.”

Anna stared at him for a moment and then she smiled: “So you _are_ worried about me…”

He grimaced and she laughed in his face with perfect unconcern. She was already putting on her clothes again. Vandal got up, put on his boxers and grabbed her by the arm before she could leave the bedroom in search of her shoes.

“Quit trying to leave and sit the fuck down,” he growled.

Anna walked back to the bed and sat down, making sure she used being half-dressed to her advantage. “What?” she smiled. “You hungry for pillow talk now?”

“Yes,” he said sarcastically and he came to stand in front of her in a rather threatening manner. “Let’s start with ‘how the fuck did you find out I’m a ghoul’.”

“Hm…” Anna said, crossing her legs and leaning back dramatically as if she was thinking very deeply. “Maybe it had _something_ to do with you being able to hold me halfway up a wall for about half an hour without breaking a sweat. It could be something else, but I’m pretty sure that was a hint.”

Vandal glared at her and she rolled her eyes.

“You know,” she said. “You are _impossible_ to compliment.” She gave him a soft nudge and said: “I grew up in Philly. It’s a big city, with as many dark corners as LA. I studied medicine, Vandal, I’ve seen so many fucked up shit that finding out about the…night life, couldn’t really shock me anymore.”

“What do you know about vampires then,” Vandal asked warily.

“Enough to stay away from them,” Anna said, suddenly rather serious.

“Clever,” Vandal said. “Not clever enough to stay away from me though.”

“Yeah…” Anna smiled. “Can I get back to you on that later and for now just chalk that up to ‘I just couldn’t help myself’?”

“Is that supposed to be another compliment,” he snorted.

“See,” she grinned. “You’re learning.” She let one of her hands slide slowly up his stomach.

Vandal stared down at her. Was that just her go-to for avoiding questions she didn’t want to answer? Well, it had worked for her so far. But if she had known from the beginning… almost the beginning anyway.

“You make a habit of screwing creatures of the night?” he asked.

She didn’t look at him, but traced invisible lines across his skin instead. “If I want something I usually get it…” she said. “Don’t ever really stop to think whether I _should_ want it.”

“Not much of a philosopher, hm?” he grunted.

“Not at all,” Anna said lightheartedly.

Vandal grabbed her chin and raised it up, forcing her to look at him. “And you don’t care,” he demanded. “I’m slave and servant to the blood gods and you don’t give a shit.”

“No,” she replied simply. “Never pegged you as the slave type though.” A faint look of disgust passed across her face. “You don’t let them fuck you, do you?”

His stomach churned and he abruptly let go of her. “Not that kind of slave,” he growled. “I don’t do dead chicks.”

“Good,” Anna said and she made a gagging sound.

“ _That_ disgusts you,” Vandal said incredulously. “You don’t care about any of it, but _that_ turns you off.”

“You don’t seem particularly charmed by the idea yourself,” she retorted.

He gave her a dark look. “Let’s chalk _that_ up to previous bad experience,” he said.

Anna shuddered. Vandal forgot to be annoyed or suspicious in his fascination with her sudden reaction. She seemed actually uncomfortable. That was a first. “You sure you’ve never met any bloodsuckers…up close?” he asked.

“Quite sure,” she said sarcastically. “I check my neck for marks every night.”

Vandal smiled, but he wasn’t distracted. He was still trying to work out what the source of her uneasiness was. Fear would be natural, but it wasn’t that. Suddenly Anna got to her feet and leaned against him, looking earnestly into his face.

“Well, this was fun,” she said seriously. “But can we try _my_ kind of pillow talk next time?”

He felt the laugh stir inside him before he could stop it and Anna smiled victoriously. She coaxed him until he kissed her and even the loudest voices in the corners of his mind gave up their frantic noises for a while. If he ever did need to get rid of her, Vandal thought vaguely, he might as well first bottle her taste and scent as a psychoactive.

♦♦♦

LA was annoyingly hot. Anna didn’t appreciate being overheated. It made her look unkempt and she absolutely despised that. She sweated more easily than she liked and she was sure her skin was suffering because of it. That meant that ever since moving here she had put extra care into her morning routine. Her morning routine was exactly that: a routine. She hadn’t changed it in years.

Anna had had the same, whitewashed, wooden dressing table since she was a little girl. It had been a present from her father for her twelfth birthday. All that had changed was that she sat on a lower stool now. Slowly and methodically she plucked her eyebrows and cleaned and moisturized her skin. She brushed her hair until it was completely free of knots and pulled it up into a smooth bun. Anna did all of this with a perfect harmony of attention to detail and absent-mindedness. When she was finished she smiled at her reflection, giving her cool exterior a softer look. Everything was so much easier when you took care of your appearance.

Anna was thankful for her looks, her father had always said that to be taken seriously, you had to be good-looking, but not too beautiful. A pleasant face and well cared for appearance opened doors, being beautiful only got you one type of attention. Anna smirked. The nurses at the hospital were a very good example of the effects of beauty. Nancy, the Emergency Room nurse, was not as pretty as Paige, but was much more respected. Of course everyone was _nice_ to Paige, but only because of one reason. Well, that and the fact that they didn’t want to piss of Dr. St.Martin. Yes, a little beauty and a lot of smarts were a lot more effective than the other way round to get you what you wanted.

Not that this hospital had a lot to offer in the smarts department. Dr. Roberts was the only one whose medical expertise Anna could actually respect. And although there were a couple of nurses with at least a healthy common sense, most of the staff ranged from unremarkable to utterly incompetent. As far as genuine insight in what was going on around them was concerned, none of them were worth a jot. They were all oblivious and preoccupied with mundanity. All of them except Vandal. Anna smiled involuntarily. She really didn’t know anymore if she should be annoyed or thankful for his presence. His constant snooping meant that she had to be a lot more careful than she otherwise would have been, but without him she might have died from boredom already. Well, you never knew, maybe he’d start making her life easier soon. He had taken the news of her knowing what he was better than she had expected. She had gotten the timing of that just right. Still, he freaked out whenever he found out something new about her. He really was rather unstable. She wondered if that had more to do with what he was or who he was… In any case, he was a damn good source of stress relief.

She was about to get up when she caught a sideways glimpse of herself in the mirror and between her blazer and her high bun it suddenly struck her that she dressed not at all unlike Therese Voerman. She had seen her at the hospital a few days ago, talking to the director. The air of superiority and conceit that hung around her was thick enough to choke on. Anna turned her head left and right, staring at herself in fascination. Suddenly something clicked into place and she let out a short laugh. “So _that’s_ why you don’t like my hair…” she smirked.

Men were so sensitive. She hesitated for a moment, but then she quickly loosed her hair again, took out a hair clip and bobby pins and began twisting her locks into a messy updo. Every little bit helped, she thought, maybe one day she’d even manage to start a conversation with him without him demanding she had ulterior motives. He was right about that, of course, but his insistence in not letting it go was really getting quite annoying. Never mind, she thought with a smile. By now she had a pretty good idea of what he liked and luckily his tastes matched hers rather closely.

“Funny how that usually works out,” Anna remarked to her reflection and she went off to work in a very good mood.

♦♦♦

Vandal wasn’t sure how or why he let it happen, but somehow he and Anna had become…something. They didn’t exactly spend a lot of time together, but she still ended up going home with him about once or twice a week. He didn’t remember ever using the phone number she gave him, but somehow she had gotten hold of _his_ number and although she never called him, it wasn’t unusual for her to text him now and again. Vandal still didn’t understand what she really wanted and he still didn’t trust her. But at the moment at least she didn’t seem to want anything that he didn’t want to give, and in a weird way it was oddly…liberating to be with someone that _knew_. He didn’t have to watch what he said, didn’t have to hold back his strength. Well, not more than the required threshold for not significantly damage your partner. Part of him, mostly his body, told him he shouldn’t argue with a good thing. And Anna _was_ a good thing. The best he’d ever had.

Honestly, she was also pretty good company. She knew when to shut up and when she did talk she was either playing and flirting or she actually had something interesting to say. There were worse women to be having sex with. And she still ran out before staying the night could even be talked of, which was definitely a bonus. Not that staying the night was even an option, they usually ended up in bed somewhere early in the morning.

“How can you sleep with all this sunlight,” Anna asked one of those mornings. “Your windows are full east and your curtains are useless.”

“What the fuck does it matter, you don’t sleep here anyway,” Vandal grunted, rolling onto his stomach.

“No, and I couldn’t if I wanted to,” she scoffed. She moved towards him and sat down on top of him, kneeling over his lower back.

“The hell are you doing?” he demanded.

“Jeez, calm down, never had a massage before?” she tutted.

Vandal muttered something unintelligible and lay back down again. Anna kneaded up and down his back, occasionally informing him he was ridiculously tense for a guy that had a naked girl sitting on top of him. He didn’t bother answering her. Her hands were small but remarkably strong and when she really tried the pressure she was putting on his back and shoulders was pleasantly painful.

After a while Anna fell silent and her hands slowed down a little. For a moment she thoughtfully traced a line under his left shoulder blade with her finger and then seemed to recollect herself and continued as before.

“Who’s your regnant?” she asked suddenly.

“Ngh,” Vandal grunted. There was no way in hell he was talking about that.

 _Oh, but he should, he should tell her. Tell her everything. See the fear and disgust on her face. See her go white as a sheet and back away from him, as if she’d have a chance of running._ Vandal squeezed his eyes shut for a moment and focussed on Anna’s massage instead of the voices. She went back to digging her fingers into his shoulders and neck and even though he was not relaxing in the slightest, it really did feel good.

“It’s the vampire that runs the Asylum, isn’t it?” she said gently.

Vandal turned around with a growl, effectively throwing her off him. “I told you to _stay away_ from there,” he growled.

“You tell me a lot of things,” Anna scoffed. “And I haven’t been there since that one time.”

“Then how do you know about…her?” Vandal snapped.

“It seems _everybody_ in Santa Monica knows about Therese Voerman,” Anna said.

Vandal winced internally when she said her name.

“She donates to the hospital, you know,” Anna hummed.

Vandal ignored that and demanded: “But how do you know _about_ her.”

“How do I know _about_ you?” Anna said airily. “I’ve picked things up over the years.” She crawled around so she sat behind him now, but instead of continuing the massage she wrapped her legs around his waist.

Vandal leaned into her, wrapping his fingers around her ankles. Perhaps it didn’t matter that much if Anna knew about Therese…as long as she stayed away from her. Suddenly he remembered something. “Where did you learn that term?” he asked suspiciously. “ _Regnant_. No one uses that word but bloodsuckers.”

“I’ve picked things up over the years,” Anna repeated, snaking her arms around his neck from behind and touching his face.

“You’re a lying bitch,” Vandal grunted and he caught her hand with his mouth, sucking on her fingers.

“Yeah,” Anna hummed, her lips ghosting over the back of his neck. “And you’re a broody asshole.”

Vandal ran his tongue over her soft fingers and tasted her skin. He gently bit her fingers and she made a muffled sound that was almost a giggle. He let go of her hand for a moment and said darkly: “Stay away from the Asylum and stay away from the Bitch Goddess that owns it and me.”

“Hm,” Anna hummed. “Okay. Any other requests?”

“Yeah, finish your stupid massage and get out.”

She laughed.

♦♦♦

It was a game now. Anna pretended to pester him and he pretended to be annoyed by it. He was still highly suspicious about her knowledge about vampires. Sometimes he could coax her to talk about it and it showed that she knew rather a lot. Rather too much. Much less often, and with an air of apparent indifference,  she asked _him_ questions. Questions that he avoided, but he always felt like even his evasions told her something she wanted to know.

This was stupid, of course. All of it was stupid. But dammit, she was _fun_. She gave a splash of colour to the dull, grey sludge of his life. A splash almost as red as the blood of violence. He found himself looking forward to Fridays, that was usually when she decided to come with him. Unlike him she did have her weekends to herself and that made the night from Friday to Saturday the best one to skip most of her sleep.

“I saw Therese Voerman at the hospital the other day,” Anna said one Friday night going on Saturday morning, while they were taking off their coats.

“You want a drink?” Vandal asked instead of responding to that.

“At six in the morning? No,” she said.

“Suit yourself,” Vandal shrugged and he grabbed a bottle from underneath a side table.

“You hate her, don’t you?” Anna said, sitting down on his couch.

He said nothing, took a glass out of the cupboard and poured himself a generous helping.

“You hate to even hear her _name_ ,” Anna insisted. “Do you ever even call her by her name? Is it-”

“Of course I hate her, she fucking _owns_ me,” Vandal interrupted her harshly. “Do you have _any_ idea how humiliating that is?”

Anna gave him a strange look. “Why don’t you just leave?” she asked.

“You think she’d let me go?” he said with a hollow laugh and he drained his glass in one go. He let himself fall down onto the couch next to her.

“I think she’s too stuck up to take the trouble of looking for you,” Anna said taking off her shoes and pulling her feet up under her.

Vandal looked away. Anna might be right. It had probably never even occurred to Therese that he might run away. But that was because he _couldn’t_. Anna might know a little about vampires, but she clearly had never seen a ghoul with withdrawal symptoms. He wouldn’t be able to stay away. Being late in getting his fix was agony already, he couldn’t even imagine how terrible actually skipping one would be. He was not going to tell her that though. He shouldn’t tell her _anything_. But…

“Mortality is such a fucking handicap,” he growled. “It always did piss me off, the thought that the only thing keeping you alive is the indifference or weakness of the people around you. But since I found out that immortality is actually a possibility…being human would just be insufferable.”

Anna made a tutting sound. “Don’t insult humanity, you’re happy enough enjoying her bounty.”

“Yes,” Vandal said snarkily. “Nice when the fruits of the harvest hang so low.”

She kicked in his general direction, without any indication that she was really offended. “You’re wrong about indifference and weakness though…” she said dreamily. “People are alive because of the benevolence and mercy of others…”

“Hmf,” he scoffed.

“It’s true,” Anna said. “It’s all mercy and benevolence…otherwise we’d all be dead, surely.”

Vandal didn’t argue. Anna was a doctor, almost anyway. They had to think like that. Believe in the good in people, or else what was the point of their work? There was none, or very little anyway, but they had to believe there was. He looked at her and wondered if that was what she thought she was doing, being merciful. The thought had never occurred to him before, but had she singled him out to save him? He grimaced.

“We _should_ all be dead,” he said. “Have you ever considered what walks among us every night? They could pick us off one by one, leading us away like cattle and we’d be none the wiser until it was far too late.”

Anna had a cool expression on her face. “And yet,” she said measuredly. “Here we are.”

Vandal didn’t reply. If he had that kind of power, they wouldn’t be. If it was him wielding the power in the dark he’d _never_ reduce himself to drinking from a plastic bag. He would have nothing but the real deal. He’d drink humanity dry one by one. They’d make more, like good little sheep, but his thirst would be greater than theirs. And what he couldn’t drink he’d paint the walls and floors with. He’d have the world dripping with crimson. What he wouldn’t give to possess that kind of invulnerability. The benefits he had gained as a ghoul were barely worth anything considering the loss of his freedom. But as a vampire there would be nothing to regret… Apparently Anna’s patience had run out because he was suddenly startled from his thoughts by a shirt being thrown at the general direction of his head. He turned around and looked at her. She was already mostly undressed. Well, maybe he’d miss this.

“Leave them,” he ordered, when she was about to take off her stockings.

“If you hurry up I might,” Anna teased and she padded to the bedroom in her underwear and stockinged feet.

He _would_ miss this, Vandal thought as he followed her. Well, who the fuck knew being a ghoul actually had a silver lining?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I decided to give Anna’s perspective a little more room, since Vandal _clearly_ has hardly any insight in what’s going on in her head. This story will stay mostly from his perspective, but when it’s particularly useful I will switch to Anna.  
>  On the subject of Anna: it’s important to me that she is the sort of person that spends loads of time on looking perfect, but refuses to use make-up or dye her hair in a sort of conceited ‘you can’t improve upon perfection with artificiality’. Her views on beauty are also completely biased, if she had been more beautiful (or her father more handsome), they would be very different.


	5. Breakfast and Dinner

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Content warnings:** Violence, but nothing too graphic (yet).

The sun was going down on Santa Monica and the shadows were quickly rolling in to help hide the filth and the paltry state of the city. Vandal was watching the people on the streets, hands shoved into his pockets. Such a selection to choose from. So many throats ripe for slitting, so many arteries begging to be drained. His hands were positively itching.

A woman in a fine coat walked past and Vandal caught a whiff of her scent. He watched her go and involuntarily moved to follow her. She’d be so _good_. Oh, but the Queen Bitch would say no to that. Don’t take anyone that will be missed. Don’t take anyone of importance. Don’t take anyone _worth taking_. No, no, mustn’t do it, mustn’t do it. _Must do it_. That woman probably never had had a single misfortune in her life. The corners of his mouth twitched as he watched her walk away from him. She didn’t pay her surroundings the slightest attention. Stuck up, conceited, pretentious… She’d be a delicate little thing. Not at all used to pain, not even used to discomfort. He could- No. He shouldn’t. Shouldn’t even think about it. He couldn’t afford to think about it.

With a hiss of frustration Vandal turned away and walked towards the Asylum. On the steps several people were hanging about, either waiting to go in or having a smoke. There was a guy trying to hit on a fairly disinterested girl who drew Vandal’s notice. He had a northern accent and looked fairly clean-cut, but also a little too enthusiastic. He couldn’t have asked for a more perfect candidate. How depressingly boring.

As he had expected the girl took off within a few minutes, leaving the rather buzzed young man on his own. Vandal sauntered up to him and offered him a very convincing friendly grin.

“Hey,” he said. “You got a light?”

“Sorry, don’t smoke,” the other replied. He sounded genuinely sorry.

Even better. “Don’t worry about it,” Vandal grinned. “So, where are you from?”

♦

Vandal slammed the door of the freezer shut behind him. Well, that was the supply topped up for a while at least. He needed to wait at least a day, two to be sure, before he started draining him. Ecstasy filtered out of the blood rather quickly but it was better to be safe than sorry. It’d be a shame to start too early. This was a nice Wisconsin-grown boy and his blood would be sweet.

He went about his usual business and it was approaching that time where late at night becomes early in the morning, when he thought he heard a noise. He stopped to listen. It was so rare for people to come down here, even during the day. He didn’t hear the noise again, but he opened the door and walked out into the hallway. He looked around. He almost missed it, but his eye _just_ caught the irregularity and he froze. The door to the back room was ever so slightly ajar. The hallway was empty and everything was quiet but _someone had opened the door to his backroom_.

Soundlessly Vandal hurried to the door, stepped inside and firmly pulled it shut behind him. The lights were on and _someone_ was- _Fuck_. Anna was standing over the guy strapped into one of the chairs. She was holding a metal tray in her hand.

At the sound of the door Anna turned around with a start and stared at him. Her eyes were so wide he could see the whites all around. _Damn what a shame_. Vandal held her gaze and without saying a word he slowly reached behind him to lock the door. Except, instead of screaming or trying to run Anna suddenly took a deep breath and downright _snapped_ at him:

“ _Christ_ , Vandal. How hard is it to keep someone gagged? The screaming nearly gave me a heart attack and this room isn’t exactly sound proof you know.”

Vandal stared at her, at a complete loss for words. She stepped away and he saw the young man was unconscious. “What- did you _hit_ him?” he said, astonished.

“First thing that came to mind,” Anna said irritably, putting down the tray. “Really, I hadn’t expected you to keep them _at the hospital_.”

“ _That_ is your main concern in all this?” he said incredulously.

No matter Anna’s chattering about vampires and no matter how little she was bothered by him being a ghoul, he had completely expected to have to get rid of her now. If he had had the time he would have been forced to acknowledge the pang of regret that accompanied the thought of having to kill her, but instead he was just standing there looking at her, baffled.

Anna was scowling at him like she was scolding a child that should have known better. “What?” she said with a scoff. “I’m supposed to feel sorry for some druggy that willingly followed a suspicious individual to the backroom of a hospital in the middle of the night.” She snorted.

“You follow that suspicious individual home several nights a week,” he said, staring at her in fascination.

“Don’t remind me,” she said drily.  She glanced around with disapproving eyes. “This room is disgusting. Do you never clean around here?”

“My patients never complain,” Vandal said in the same dry tone of voice.

“What the fuck is all this stuff?” Anna loathed, looking at the dirty floor. “Are you so sloppy with your equipment?”

“You never get all of it out…” he said slowly. “And sometimes they manage to thrash a little…” He could hardly believe this. She was questioning his security measures, his housekeeping skills…everything _but_ the kidnap and murder. She wasn’t even scared, hell, she wasn’t even _nervous_.

“Honestly, how you’ve never been caught is beyond me,” she huffed.

“Probably because no one has ever _stolen my keys before_ ,” Vandal growled, suddenly remembering what he was in the middle of.

“I didn’t steal your keys,” Anna said. “I asked security for a copy, you are _aware_ they have copies right?”

“Why the fuck did they give one to you?” he demanded.

“I’m a hard person to disappoint,” she smirked. “But I could have gotten the code for that ridiculous freezer passage as well, your security measures are dreadful.”

Well, he thought, she wasn’t exactly wrong. This was the second time someone had gotten in. It was just that he didn’t really care. Still…

“Maybe my security measures are meant for normal people,” he said. “No one ever comes here. Why should they? What the fuck are you doing here?”

“What the fuck _was_ I doing here,” Anna corrected. “I’m not staying here for him to wake up and start bawling his head off again.”

She moved towards the door, but Vandal made a warning sound. He locked the door she had come in through and held out his hand to her. Anna rolled her eyes and gave him the key she had used. Impatiently she walked over to the hidden door on the other side, but when Vandal turned to follow her, she said:

“Really? You’re leaving him like this?”

“Fucking nuisance of a woman,” Vandal hissed and he went up to the young man, grabbed a towel from a drawer and gagged him. He made some vague moaning noises that indicated he’d soon wake up. Anna had hit him in an effective place rather than with much force.

Vandal locked the door, followed Anna into the freezer, closed the hidden door and opened the freezer door. She was still making impatient, sarcastic sounds.

“You didn’t want me to go out by that door, but us coming out of the freezer hall is not suspicious?” she scoffed.

“That door is supposed to be _locked_ ,” Vandal growled. “Anyone sees us here they’re just going to think we had a screw in one of the freezers.”

He chuckled when he saw Anna’s face. The adrenaline in his blood was making him giddy now. He made Anna follow him to his blood bank and she didn’t protest in any way. When he closed the door behind them she leaned against the nearest counter and looked at him with part amusement, part remaining impatience.

“How did you know?” he demanded. She _must_ have gone looking for his workplace on purpose.

“I did _not_ know,” she said. “I wasn’t expecting to find…that. Just something else you were hiding away. A laboratory of your own of some sort. God knows you have the ability to make one.”

“So you went snooping around just on the off chance you’d find some work of mine?” he said, incredulously.

“Don’t flatter yourself,” she smirked. “I didn’t just snoop around looking for _your_ work. And it didn’t take much snooping either. It’s the only completely unused room near enough to your blood bank for you to get in and out whenever you please. I took a look in some other places too. Did you know that one of the technicians has a deal with a journalist, there’s all kinds of unauthorized blood and DNA tests being done.”

“Don’t change the subject,” Vandal growled. “Whatever you were looking for, you weren’t exactly surprised to find what you found.”

“Excuse you,” Anna snarked. “You didn’t see me go in there to be screamed at by a crazed drug addict.”

“True, what a pity,” Vandal smirked. “But that only means that he gave you a scare, not that his being there surprised you.”

Anna rolled her eyes. “Oh come on,” she scoffed. “It’s clear that this hospital goes through an exorbitant amount of blood as it is, but nowhere near enough to supply an entire town full of addicts. I knew you had to top up your supply somewhere.”

Vandal watched her with unrestrained wonder. “And you really don’t care about that,” he said. “Not even a bit?”

“Why should I care?” she demanded.

“Because you…” Vandal waved his hands around. “Because you want to _help_ people.”

“There’s no helping some people,” Anna shrugged unconcernedly.

Vandal was fascinated, infuriated… He was on the brink of bursting out laughing. “So you get to save some, and I get to murder others and you’re fine with that?” he said.

Anna looked into his eyes for a moment and then turned away again. “It’s all the same thing,” she said. “It really doesn’t matter.”

She didn’t care. He could hardly believe it, but she _didn’t care_. What on earth did she mean ‘it’s all the same thing’? It was absurd. It was preposterous. The ridiculousness of it made him almost _cheerful_.

“Have dinner with me,” he said suddenly.

Now _Anna_ looked surprised. Vandal looked at her in silence and waited for her answer. Apart from the two times they had met in the Asylum and the Confession respectively they had never spent time together outside of work or hurrying to his apartment. Their schedule for eating seemed as fucked up as that for sleeping and their game, whatever it was, had always taken place in or on the way to a bedroom. But somehow, after being walked in on keeping a victim captive to be murdered and having been met with nothing but sass and indifference, he felt entitled to ask this woman out. Hell, he suddenly _wanted_ to ask this woman out.

“Dinner or breakfast?” Anna said archly after what seemed like a long time, nodding at the clock.

“I don’t give a fuck,” Vandal said.

Anna repressed a smile and shrugged. “Sure.”

Not long after that they sat down in the 24-hour diner down the street. Anna ordered pancakes. Vandal snorted.

“Pancakes can be breakfast or dinner,” she insisted.

“Sickening, princess,” Vandal remarked, when she smothered the stack of pancakes in syrup when they arrived.

“I don’t think _you_ get to say _anything_ about being sickening tonight,” she quipped.

Vandal grinned and tore into his steak.

They ate in silence for a while. It was rather surreal this, he thought. Why had he even asked her to come here with him? _He should have just killed her_. Sure, it would have been a little suspicious to have her disappear all of a sudden. His colleagues knew he was involved with her and they would certainly take note of that, but when Therese told the police to stop looking into something they did. Except he didn’t _want_ to kill her. _What would Therese have wanted him to do?_ Therese wanted so many things, what about what he wanted? Anna said something that he didn’t catch due to his lack of attention.

“Hm?” he said, raising his head.

“Where’d you get Mr. Noisy back there?” she rephrased her question, keeping her voice down.

Vandal almost wanted to laugh. She wasn’t concerned, she was _curious_.

“Outside the Asylum,” he answered, in the same low tone of voice. “Lots of young, stupid blood there.”

“Figures,” she said, licking up some spilled syrup. “How do you select your subjects?”

“My _subjects_?” he snorted.

“That’s what they are,” Anna said. “You must have criteria. Even if they consist solely of ‘willing to follow me into a hospital late at night’.”

“That _is_ an important one,” he grinned.

Anna grinned back and shook her head. Vandal couldn’t believe they were having this conversation. Casually. Over dinner. Or Breakfast.

“There must be more to it than that though,” Anna prompted.

Vandal took another bite and watched her, chewing thoughtfully. She actually wanted to know. “You want to test the validity of my methods?” he grinned.

“I’m just curious,” Anna said smilingly. “One medically inclined professional to another.”

Vandal chuckled and without another hesitation he started talking. He talked about the sort of drugs that leave traces in your blood for too long. About the diseases that affected its suitability for consumption and the ones that didn’t and how to spot their symptoms. About the calculated purging period for alcohol and various other substances.

Anna listened to it all with charming fascination and genuine interest. She asked questions, teased, encouraged and seemed honestly to be enjoying herself.

“Why do you want to know all this?” Vandal asked finally. “And what’s that smirk for?”

“I’ll have you know this is a gentle, charming smile,” Anna informed him.

He snorted and she chuckled. “You didn’t answer my first question,” he reminded her.

She shrugged. “You’re obviously good at what you do,” she said. “Even if you’re a little reckless. What girl doesn’t like passion and talent?”

Passion and talent. He didn’t know quite how or why, but Anna was just as insane as he was. He would have to find out how exactly, because after tonight it was absolutely unacceptable not to know.

“How do you store your ‘produce’?” Anna asked suddenly, cutting up the last of her pancakes.

“The usual way,” Vandal replied.

“Really?” she said, surprised. “There are no special methods? Considering…the intended use.”

“No one’s been able to find other methods of preserving it,” Vandal said. “Believe you me, I’ve tried.”

“Really?” she asked. “What have you tried?”

He explained and as Anna gave him her undivided attention a strange feeling crept up on him. They were sitting in a diner, leaning towards each other across the table in a booth and…they were talking about mutual interests and personal projects. She was genuinely interested and she understood him and she suggested things that he could react to without any sarcasm. This was ridiculous. It was…nice. And Anna, licking syrup from her lips and teasing and laughing and listening, was not infuriating or maddening or fuckable. She was… cute.

When they finished their food there was a strange sort of silence and the more Vandal thought about what he wanted right now the less clear his thoughts and feelings were on the subject.

“So,” Anna said. “Desert at mine or yours?”

Vandal leaned back in his seat and raised an eyebrow.

“Hey, they are clichés because they work,” Anna grinned.

Sure, why not. A casual kidnapping, having your victim found and knocked unconscious, a casual dinner and then a quick fuck. Maybe this was the world finally catching up to him, deciding he had been the normal one all along.

“You’ve never invited me to yours before,” he remarked.

“More out of convenience than for any other reason,” Anna shrugged. “I’m sure you already know where I live anyway.”

Of course he did. Her address was listed in her personnel file. Still… he wasn’t quite sure if he believed it was by accident that she always came to his.

Anna smirked and got to her feet. “So, what’s it gonna be?” she coaxed.

“My place is closer,” he answered.

♦

Anna was particularly demanding that night and he was actually a little tired when they were finally lying side by side on the bed. Vandal turned to look at Anna and she was smiling at him with a satisfied expression on her face.

“Look,” he said with a sigh. “This is probably getting as annoying for you as it is for me, so why don’t you just _tell me what it is you want from me_.”

She laughed softly and arched her back to stretch it. “After all that just now I don’t think I want _anything_ ,” she said, with a sigh of deep satisfaction.

“Don’t make me ask you again,” Vandal said wearily.

Anna sighed. “I just told you, _this_. I want this. That’s it.”

Vandal scowled at her.

“What more do you want me to say?” she laughed. “I just want you. Do I have to have a reason? I certainly didn’t know I was going to stumble upon someone as interesting as you when I walked into the bloody Santa Monica Medical Clinic.”

“Fine,” he growled. “So why did you come to the Clinic then? What do you expect to find here?” Perhaps that question was even more important than the one of why she was interested in _him_. It had certainly been the first question that had come to mind when he first found out about her and the disdainful way she often spoke of the hospital made it clear she wasn’t exactly here for her own enjoyment.

“Hm,” Anna hummed, rolling on her stomach. “That’s a different question altogether.”

Vandal watched the curve of her body as she rested her chin on her hands. He reached out and touched her bare back. Anna hardly reacted at first, but when he slowly traced her spine with his finger she made a pleased sound in the back of her throat. She liked being touched by him. She _loved_ being touched by him. She had knocked someone that he had kidnapped and tied up unconscious. She was insane. He didn’t care. He didn’t trust her. _He didn’t care._

“Vampire blood.”

He froze, his hand still on her back. “What?” he hissed.

“That’s what I expect to find here,” she said. “Vampire blood.”

“Why?” he asked after a short silence.

Anna lay still and silent and Vandal looked at her, waiting for an answer that didn’t come. What was it she had said the first time she had let on she knew he was a ghoul? ‘ _I do blood research. It is relevant to my interests...’_

“And _what_ -” he said darkly. “-do you want with vampire blood?”

She slowly sat up and he let his hand slide off her back without actively retracting it. She gave him a strange look and said: “I want to experiment with it. I _have_ experimented with it. But I need more…”

“How did _you_ get hold of _vampire blood_?” Vandal demanded to know.

A small smile played around her lips for a moment. “I’ve decided I’ll only answer one question tonight,” she said. “So what’s it going to be? How or why?”

Vandal scowled at her. If she thought he was going to let this go, she was sorely mistaken. If she was actively meddling with bloodsuckers he needed to know about it, hell, if someone else found out about it and it got back to Therese that he knew Anna there would be trouble.

“Why,” he growled.

“Good choice,” Anna laughed. “Well, to put it simply I want vampire blood because of what it does to you, or ghouls in general.”

Vandal regarded her suspiciously, but didn’t interrupt.

“They drink human blood, but _you_ drink vampire blood,” Anna said matter-of-factly. “And it makes you stronger, keeps you healthy and slows your aging process. But…” And she smiled sweetly at Vandal. “It also makes you a little crazy, doesn’t it?” When he didn’t respond she went on: “You’re not like the other ghouls I’ve met. They adored their regnants, you fucking _hate_ Therese. To be fair you hate everybody, but still…” She shook her head. “It must be absolute torture for you, because ghouls can’t help but adore their master or mistress. It’s the blood, it binds you to them. They give you their ‘protection’ and in turn they own you. I can see the fury in your face every time I say her name, but I know that whatever Therese tells you to do you’ll _do_. And that as long as she has her eyes on you obeying her feels better than anything in the world.”

Vandal was at a loss for words. He didn’t know what part of that speech angered him more. The fact that she knew so much, the fact that she knew other ghouls to compare him to or how accurately she had guessed his relationship with Therese. He opted for a sullen silence instead of a reply and Anna filled the silence by continuing:

“Vampires share the protection of their blood only to benefit themselves. They need people they can control, humans incapable of betraying them. In exchange for this they give up a little of the corrupted gift that they carry inside of them… But what if we could make use of that gift on _our terms_.” Her voice changed ever so slightly, something of hardness slipping in behind the silkiness of the words and Vandal watched Anna closely.

“Something in their blood holds restorative power,” she said. “Such restorative power that it can keep them _alive_ long after they have died. And something in their blood carries the curse of their kind, the insanity and violence so many of them are cursed with and inspires the slavish link between them and whoever consumes their blood. If I could _separate_ these components… find out what is responsible for the one and what for the other… Imagine what I could do! I could extract the restorative agent from a vampire's blood and give it to people without them turning into ghouls meant to serve a regnant. Even if only a little of the biological effects in regards to healing are preserved during the extraction process, it would be a medicine capable of curing and healing ails that modern medicine hasn’t even _begun_ to touch!”

Vandal stared at her. Colour had risen into her face and her eyes were shining. Ambition was attractive on her, but there was a glint in her eyes that Vandal knew was more than ambition or passion. There was something about her way of speaking that was just a tad unhinged, just a little too prone to speak about this in terms of emotion rather than in the clinical language of the medical world. It was a side of her he hadn’t really seen before and he was instantly hungry for more.

“ _What_ -” he interrupted her pointedly. “-makes you think that I won’t run off to my _mistress_ like a good little ghoul and tell her that some crazy _human_ wants to bleed her and all her kind dry?”

“Because you’re _not_ a good little ghoul,” Anna said, moving towards him and making sure she could look straight into his eyes. “And if you wanted to kill me you could have done it long ago…” Vandal’s grin faltered for a moment and Anna laughed softly. “I bet it crossed your mind more than once, at least that time I stumbled upon that noisy victim of yours.”

For a moment Vandal was baffled by the apparent extent of Anna’s complete apathy towards all of this. Did she really not care? Or did she just think he’d never actually do it? He gave her a strange, conflicted look and then he suddenly laughed. It was too good of a joke. A girl like her, sitting naked on his bed, telling him how she wanted to turn all-powerful vampires into medicine.

Anna laughed with him as if she fully understood the joke and said with twinkling eyes: “So…from the fact that I haven’t been drained of my blood and sold to the steady supply of nocturnal customers that knock on your ‘donation window’ every night…I must conclude that you _like_ me. At least a little…at least enough to want to keep me around…”

“Maybe,” he chuckled. “But that still implies that you want to be around me, which is even more ridiculous than everything you’ve just told me.”

“I’m insulted,” Anna pouted.

“That I think your ideas are ridiculous or that I think you’re crazy?” Vandal scoffed.

“Oh I know I’m crazy,” Anna said unconcernedly. “Having to live in a world like this will do that to you, but that doesn’t mean my theory about blood refining is crazy.”

“You want an opinion on medical research from a guy you _know_ would rather kill people than help them,” he said. “Maybe you need to examine your insanity a little more, princess.”

“Hm…” Anna hummed. “I guess I’ll go do that then.”

She got up and gathered her clothes. Vandal didn’t really want her to go yet, but he suspected she was leaving because he wouldn’t give his opinion and he wasn’t going to be tricked into answering. He put on his boxers and followed Anna to the door, where she gave him a long, lingering kiss. Once again Vandal felt like his mind emptied for as long as her lips touched his and then she pulled away to smile at him and the moment was past.

“Just a little thing to think about,” she said smilingly. “If I _could_ extract the part of vampire blood that grants all the restorative powers without any of the drawbacks…maybe _you_ would like to use it instead of wasting it on all those people you say you’d rather kill.”

And with that she moved past him and out of the door, closing it softly behind him, leaving Vandal alone with his thoughts. His apartment was suddenly very quiet. _All the restorative powers without any of the drawbacks_ …

Vandal could hardly remember being human. Truly human. He didn’t know if he had ever been human. He had never been normal, he knew that. He had known it when he went to nursing school. He had known it when he had laid eyes on Therese for the first time. He had known it when he willingly followed her into the dark. It was only _after_ she had shown him what it meant to be with her, that he realized that although he had never been normal he had at least been _himself_. But by then it had been too late and although he had hated and adored Therese with equal violence ever since, he had never really looked back. Until now…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Plot thickening all over the place. Anna seems to have some issues of her own…


	6. Liquid Honesty

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Content warnings:** Alcohol abuse, drug abuse mentions, mention of domestic abuse, cancer mention.

The cashier smirked when Vandal put a bottle of whiskey and a bottle of coke on the counter.

“Planning to get someone drunk, are we?” he winked.

“Yes,” Vandal answered flatly. “Myself.”

The cashier quickly rang up his purchases and made no further eye contact. Vandal walked out of the store with very mixed feelings. Anna had gotten under his skin from day one, he was quite capable of admitting that now, but until last Thursday she hadn’t been capable of giving him anything he couldn’t get somewhere else. To say Vandal wasn’t romantic would be the understatement of the year and as far as he was concerned people were utterly replaceable. Most of the time. Maybe Anna wasn’t. She had certainly managed to surprise him every step of the way. But now… _Now_ she was offering him something extraordinary: a way out. Not without strings attached, of course, he was absolutely certain there would be a whole lot of strings. But that’s why he needed to find out exactly what he was dealing with. If there was even the slightest chance that Anna could help him break away from Therese, it was worth investigating what strings she’d be pulling. And speaking of strings, it was about time he started pulling some himself.

Anna’s address wasn’t hard to find. Just like she had said, it was a pretty nice place downtown. A good neighbourhood too, as far as downtown LA went. A couple of people looked at him strangely while he walked through the gallery in search of her apartment door. He ignored them. When he found the correct number there was no plaque with her name on the door. That was rather typical, he thought. Vandal rang the doorbell and waited. There was some movement inside and Anna’s voice called out gently:

“Who is it?”

“Does the answer matter for your decision whether or not to open the door?” he asked sarcastically.

“Vandal?” he heard her surprised reaction and the door opened.

Vandal leaned against the doorpost and smirked at her. “Tell me, if you open the door for someone like _me_ , who do you _not_ open the door for?”

Anna didn’t answer, she just laughed and stepped aside. Vandal went inside, walked straight through into her living room and placed the bottles on her coffee table. He glanced around quickly. It was a nicely furnished apartment. Rather expensive looking and very neat.

“What’s this?” Anna asked raising an eyebrow.

He turned around to look at her. “You’re going to tell me why you want to bleed dry vampires to make medicine and how I can help you do it, and I won’t trust you to tell me the truth while you’re sober.”

“Aw, thanks,” Anna said with an insincere smile. “But I don’t drink.”

Vandal smirked at her. “You went to med school,” he scoffed. He tapped the bottles. “So, straight whiskey or half and half?”

“Straight,” she relented after a moment’s silence and she went to the cupboard to fetch them both a glass.

Vandal took them from her and filled each with more than one helping of whiskey.

“So…you’ll help me?” Anna said with a smile that was almost girlish.

“I didn’t say that,” Vandal said, sitting down on her couch. “I said you were going to tell me _how_ I could help, so start talking.”

Anna grinned, took the glass he had slid towards her across the table and knocked back most of the whiskey in three big gulps. Vandal stared at her.

“What? “she laughed, licking her lips. “I thought you weren’t going to believe a word I said as long as I was sober?”

Vandal silently took a swig himself and wondered how well she could take her alcohol.

“What do you want to know, Vandal?” she asked, sitting down in a small arm chair opposite him. “Because it sounds like you got it spot on: I want to drain some parasites and use their blood for something good for a change.”

Parasite… Vandal knew hate when he heard it and that word was full of it.

“Why?” he demanded.

“To-” Anna began, but Vandal shook his head.

“ _Why_ ,” he repeated forcefully. “Why _you_. Why _this_.” His eyes were fixed on her with dark determination. “Tell me _exactly_ why you are doing this. And don’t tell me it’s because you want to do _good_. Do-gooders don’t talk about killing people.”

“Parasites, _not_ people,” Anna said sharply.

“If that’s what you want to call them,” he sneered.

“Isn’t that what they are?” Anna scowled. “Oh, I know about their precious moral codes. Their ‘humanity’,” she scoffed. “They protect their humanity by buying blood from you! By pretending that means they aren’t still responsible for the life they drain away by drinking it!”

Vandal watched the colour rise into her cheeks as she spat her words contemptuously.

“They were human once and now they feed on us like we’re nothing more than cattle,” Anna hissed. “They keep us alive because they have use for us, no other reason. Well, I think I could make use of _them_. In fact I’m _certain_. And I’m willing to _kill_ to prove it.”

“Now _that_ ,” Vandal said emphatically. “I believe.” At last he was getting a glimpse of the one thing about Anna that he had never been able to put his finger on. Her secret, the missing link, the thing that drew her to him, the thing that made her sweet smiles so infuriatingly interesting and her interest in him so attractive: hatred. Anna – smiling, polite, cheerful Anna – was just as full of hate as he was. It was a different sort of hate and she hid it well, but he could see it burning in her eyes right now and suddenly he couldn’t understand why he had never noticed it before.

Anna looked at him, conscious that she had betrayed herself. “Well done,” she said resentfully and she drank the rest of her whiskey in one go.

Vandal grinned. “Want a refill, princess?” This hadn’t even been the whiskey talking, it was far too soon for that. No, these were things she had been _dying_ to spill.

Silently Anna held out her glass to him and he filled it again, topping up his own as well. He sat back and for a moment they drank in silence. Vandal repressed the urge to ask another question. He could tell Anna was really angry about having been drawn out and if he wanted to keep her talking he had to play his cards right.

Eventually a small, wry smile appeared on Anna’s lips and she asked: “What’s that look for?”

“Just appreciating the rare sight of hatred and anger on such a sweet face,” he grinned. “You’ve been holding out on me.”

Anna scoffed, but he saw her defences coming down again already. Flattery could always be depended on, Vandal knew that. He seldom bothered with it though and he even more rarely meant it like he had done just now.

“So,” he said, taking a swig of whiskey. “You hate bloodsuckers. That doesn’t explain how you ended up in a fucking dump like the Santa Monica clinic.”

“No, no,” Anna said, leaning forward in her chair. “I’ve done my show and tell. I answered your question, now it’s your turn.”

Vandal wasn’t fazed, he hadn’t expected anything less from her.

“Because I could ask you the same thing,” she continued. “How did _you_ end up at a fucking blood bank?”

“It suits me,” Vandal replied.

“You can do better,” Anna said.

“So can you,” he retorted. “Yet here you are.”

“I’ve seen your credentials,” Anna insisted. “You are the definition of overqualified. You did the full four years of nursing school.”

Vandal smirked. “I’ve been told my bedside manner is…lacking.”

She almost laughed, but she refused to be distracted. “So you wouldn’t have made the best ward nurse,” she said. “That’s still a far cry from ending up in a dump like this working for a damn parasite,” she demanded.

Vandal took a big swig from his glass and leaned back in his chair. He hadn’t lied to that idiot at the store, he fully intended to get drunk. If Anna was going to make him talk about his goddamn past, he’d need to be.

“Well,” he said bitterly. “Mistakes are easily made, without them some of us might never have been born.”

Anna looked at him, waiting for him to continue without either empathy or judgement in her face. He sighed, emptied his glass and held it out, gesturing for a refill. Anna obliged silently and gave herself another helping too, albeit a significantly smaller one.

“I grew up in Corona,” Vandal began. That seemed as good a place to start as any.

“Why’d you leave?” Anna asked.

“My home was not the most…inspiring of environments,” he replied flatly. “Not a lot of room for ‘developing my talents’. Ma liked to keep me close, that way she could remind my father than I ruined his life as much as her when he came home looking to smack someone around.” He laughed. “Didn’t work most of the time, I didn’t cry like she did. Not as much fun. Anyway,” he said, taking another swig. “I got the fuck out of there as soon as I finished high school.”

Vandal fell silent again. He really didn’t feel like telling his whole life story. If she wanted to know something specific, she’d have to ask. _He shouldn’t be talking to her at all._ Actually, he shouldn’t _be_ here at all. _Therese wouldn’t like it_. Vandal noticed he was squeezing the glass a little too tight and put it down before he broke it. _That_ was why he was here. If Anna got her way, he might be able to get Therese out of his head.

“So, how’d you end up at nursing school?” Anna asked, pretending she hadn’t seen the twitching of his fingers.

“Wasn’t exactly med school material,” he grimaced. “Didn’t have the money either. But I’d gotten a lot of AP Science and Biology, nursing school seemed logical.”

“You got a scholarship then?” Anna asked.

“Yeah,” Vandal smirked. “No family money to pay my way. Not that they’d have spent it on me if there had been money.”

“So how did you get your scholarship?” she asked curiously.

Vandal wondered if she genuinely didn’t know how it worked or was just curious in his particular case. “Good grades, extracurricular activities,” he shrugged.

“Your parents let you do those?” she said.

“Dad couldn’t care less,” he replied. “Ma wasn’t too much trouble after I turned fifteen.”

“What happened when you turned fifteen?”

“I learned to forge prescriptions,” he grinned.

Anna gave him a strange look and then she started laughing. “Right,” she said, shaking her head. “I presume you never got caught. Something like that can’t look good on your college application.”

“Of course not,” Vandal smirked. “But honestly, you’d be amazed what they’re willing to let slide if you show up on time every day and don’t faint or retch at the sight of a little gore.” He chuckled. “I was always expecting them to catch on. That one day they’d notice that I literally didn’t give a shit about the well-being or comfort of any of those waste of space patients.” He groaned and took up his glass again. “Fucking hell, I couldn’t stand the patients. The ones that were coherent anyway.” That had been a miscalculation on his part. He had thought he would have enjoyed having all those people at his disposal, but there were always too many eyes on him, and so many goddamn protocols. No room for artistic freedom whatsoever.

Anna looked amused. “Why do you think I’m not a doctor,” she joked.

“Hm?” Vandal hummed. “Yeah, what’s with that, princess? Didn’t feel like following into daddy’s footsteps?”

Anna narrowed her eyes. “Don’t change the subject. You were going to tell me how you ended up here,” she said, pointing accusingly.

“How does anyone end up in LA?” Vandal scoffed. “I needed a job. The Santa Monica Medical Clinic needed someone to run the blood bank. I could see myself doing that for a couple years.” It was strange talking about his former self. It was someone he barely recognized and never really thought about anymore.

“So Ther- the Queen Bitch didn’t own the blood bank then?” Anna asked, correcting herself when she saw his narrowed eyes.

Vandal reached for the bottle again and grunted: “Drink up, princess, it’s rude to make me drink alone.”

Anna made an annoyed sound, knocked back the whiskey and held out her glass. He filled it for her. If he could keep her drinking at even half his pace she’d be out of it before long.

“No,” he replied to her question. “That was my brilliant idea. Fucking idiot…” He grimaced and looked at Anna. She was sitting curled up in her chair, plucking absentmindedly at the end of her braid with one hand and dangerously tipping her glass with the other. She was not yet intoxicated enough be unobservant and she’d know if he lied. Or she’d find out later. Better get it over with now. Vandal began to talk. About how he’d started his job and been absolutely staggered at the lack of supervision there had been, not to mention the lack of basic security. One night he had gone to the Asylum looking for something or someone to pass the time with and he had had a little too much to drink.

“I didn’t even know who she was,” he grunted. “Didn’t have a clue that she owned the fucking place. She was just there, suddenly. Looking at me like I was some sort of curiosity. ”

He could still feel the surprise he had felt when she sat down beside him. She was so beautiful. So clearly leagues above him. The kind of woman that would never even look at him twice. She had asked him about his work and where he came from and before he knew it he had been telling her things he had never told anyone. And she had _listened_. She had _smiled_ at him. He could not remember everything from that night, but he remembered telling her the organization at the clinic was so awful that he could have been selling half their supply of blood on the black market without the hospital administrators noticing. _That_ had gotten a spark into her eyes.

“She asked me how I would do it,” Vandal muttered darkly. “Told me to humour her, prove to her that I could actually get away with it. I don’t even remember if I thought if she was serious or not. Not like I would have cared either way. She was so goddamn beautiful. All that cunning and cruelty and she was listening to _me_. I told her _exactly_ how I would do it. Anything to keep her eyes on me a little longer. Fucking bitch had me right where she wanted me. Walked into that one eyes wide open.” He swallowed another big gulp of whiskey. “I brought her some blood. Just to show her I could.” Involuntarily he smiled. She had actually looked impressed. “It didn’t even hurt when she bit me,” he said. “Not until she pulled away.” He raised his hand to his neck and clenched his teeth against the memory of the intense pleasure mixed with a far off pain that his body seemed to feel but his mind just rejected. “I don’t remember her offering me her blood. She didn’t need to. I smelled it and something inside me told me I needed it. That tasting it would be even better than being kissed by her…” Vandal closed his eyes. His head was swimming. There was no telling if it was the alcohol or the memory, but he guessed the latter. “It was the most incredible feeling… Better than the first time I stuck a needle in a vein, better than getting off…it was fucking perfection. I drank so much. She’s never let me at her like that since…”

There was a soft clink of glass on glass and Vandal opened his eyes. Anna was refilling her glass and avoiding to look at him. He exhaled. Breathing out his adoration and inhaling only his hatred.

“By the time I realized what exactly had happened it was way too late. I was hers now. She told me her plans for the blood bank, ordered me to make it work and I set everything up exactly to her liking. Now she owns me, half the hospital and most of Santa Monica. She might as well own the air I breathe…”

“So it’s all for her?” Anna said incredulously. “All of it?”

“ _Everything_ is for her,” Vandal said darkly. “Her blood frees me and binds me. From the moment I tasted her I’ve been a slave to the Bitch Goddess.” He emptied his glass and twisted it around in his hands. “Ten fucking years…”

Anna’s eyebrows raised in surprise and Vandal laughed mirthlessly. “Don’t look so shocked, princess. I thought you’d been snooping in my file.”

Anna made no reply. Perhaps she hadn’t looked at his birth date. Vandal cared very little about his appearance, but he supposed staying young was one of the few actual perks of being a ghoul. He waited for Anna to say something and she clearly didn’t know what she could say. Eventually she just let herself hang back in her chair and stared at the ceiling.

“Fucking hell, Vandal,” she breathed.

“Hell is right,” he snarked. “Now, tell me about you. Why _didn’t_ you become a doctor.”

“I was supposed to,” she said, raising her head a little to look at him.

“But?” he prompted.

“But…I didn’t,” Anna said, pulling up her shoulders in half a shrug.

Vandal wasn’t about to let her get off that easy. “That must be a big disappointment to daddy dearest,” he sneered.

Anger flared up in her eyes. “The dead don’t feel disappointment,” she bit back.

Right, that explained a little, Vandal thought. “So the princess lost her king,” he simpered. “What about the queen?”

“There is no queen,” Anna said coldly. “Only a poor excuse for a mother that never deserved either me or my father.”

Vandal was surprised by the sudden venom in her voice. If he was hearing it correctly her speech was getting just a little slurred. “She was not like you then?” he coaxed.

Anna snorted contemptuously. “She was a waste of space.” With an angry thump she put her glass down, spilling some of the contents over the table. “My father did _everything_ for her. Gave her everything she could have possibly wanted without her ever having to lift a _finger_. All he wanted from her was a modicum of decency and all she gave him was contempt and neglect. She put everything up her nose and down her throat she could get her hands on.”

Vandal watched with rapt fascination. There was almost more hatred in her now than when she had been talking about parasites. How did she keep all this venom hidden away? ‘ _I’m supposed to feel sorry for some druggy?’_ Wasn’t that what she had said about his latest victim? He suddenly felt himself grinning.

Anna was too wrapped up in her own thoughts to even notice. “Everything was so _hard_ ,” she drawled and she went on with bitter mockery in her voice: “I can’t do it. It’s just too hard. It’s so hard…” She hissed. “ _Pathetic_.”

She sank into a sullen silence, staring angrily at her half-filled glass and Vandal tried to determine what he should say. He wanted more of this. More of her hatred and anger. If he could just keep her talking, he was sure she’d keep spilling. He had almost forgotten he wanted to know about her research and needed to find out whatever of leverage there was to be used against her. Right now he just wanted more.

“She should have died instead of my father,” Anna suddenly broke the silence. “She was the weakling.”

Vandal couldn’t quite make sense of that past tense, but he didn’t dare interrupt.

“My father wasn’t weak,” Anna breathed. “He was brilliant. He knew how people worked. He taught me that to help them, you couldn’t feel sorry for them. You needed to see what was wrong with them and fix them. That’s what he did and that’s what I wanted to do. Fix people.”

The fiery venom was draining away and being replaced with a bitterness that was perhaps not as exciting, but at least as interesting.

“They tried to fix him when his body got sick,” Anna muttered. “At first I thought they would. My father had them give him the most aggressive treatments they had. Chemo. Radiation. All of it. And at first it did seem to work. I thought he would get better… And then I saw that wasn’t going to happen. And I got _so_ afraid…” Her face was almost grey now. “ _So_ afraid that he would die before my eighteenth birthday. That he would die and they would find that waste of space they called my mother and make me stay with her!” She fixed her eyes on Vandal, but he had the feeling she was staring right through him. “The thought nearly drove me mad…,” she hissed. “But my dad was stronger than that. He held on for me. He said he’d see me through college. He’d see me become a doctor.” A wry smile played around her lips. “He never did…and I never shall.”

She picked up her glass again and Vandal watched her with thinly veiled curiosity. This explained a fair bit, but wasn’t even close to painting a whole picture. Anna did not seem inclined to talk anymore, though. She was holding her glass to her lips and either drinking very slowly, or had actually zoned out for a moment.

“So your mom left, hm?” he said.

Anna looked up at him. “Yeah,” she said indifferently. “When I was fourteen. Best thing she ever did for me.” A thought occurred to her and she asked: “What happened to your parents?”

“I’ll tell you if you tell me why you didn’t become a doctor,” Vandal offered. It was clear Anna’s father had wanted her to follow in his footsteps and Vandal couldn’t imagine that Anna would have actually failed at something she tried to do. That she’d go against her father’s wishes seemed equally unlikely though, she clearly idolized the guy.

“You first,” she demanded, but he shook his head.

“Not how it works, princess,” he smirked. “Your father was a surgeon, right? Did he want you to do the same?” He remembered how she had looked away when he drew her blood. “You’re not squeamish, are you?”

“No,” Anna said. “It’s… I…” She put her glass down and rubbed her temples.

Vandal couldn’t tell whether it was the alcohol that was bothering her or that she was genuinely getting upset. Either way this was great fun to watch.

“People…” Anna suddenly said slowly. “Are so. Fucking. _Stupid_.”

Vandal watched the now vaguely familiar contemptuous sneer return to her lips and felt a sudden urge to kiss her. He didn’t move an inch though. He listened.

“You can try to help them,” Anna continued. “Buy them a little more time in their wretched lives… But all you’re giving them is more time to find ways to destroy themselves.” She looked up at Vandal with a broken smile on her face. “I tried, I really did. I did not want to disappoint my father. But I couldn’t do it. After he died I switched completely to clinical research instead of practicing medicine. I couldn’t bear the thought of patients. What was the point? They were either weaklings like my mother, making themselves sicker and more broken with every chance they got. Or they’d be like my father, cursed with a body that completely forsakes the mind by breaking down for no good reason… I wouldn’t be able to fix either of them.”

Vandal smiled at her anguish. None of these feelings meant anything to him. The stupidity and weakness of humanity was the beauty of it. So easy to hurt, so easy to kill, they were dying all around you before you had hardly lifted a finger. How could someone like Anna not see that? Come to think of it, none of this really fit with the Anna he knew. Not quite. Not yet.

“So you changed the gore of an operating table for the sterility of a lab,” Vandal grinned. “I bet you graduated top of your class.”

Anna gave him a cold look. “As a matter of fact I did,” she said.

“Never doubted it, princess,” Vandal teased. “Now tell me about the bloodsuckers.” When she didn’t respond he clicked his tongue and said: “If you want my help with your mental schemes I want to know how you came up with them.”

She flashed a resentful look his way and he was certain she swallowed an insult before she answered darkly: “I started volunteering at a free clinic. I mostly ran tests, basic blood work, that kind of stuff. You know…the kind of place people like where my father worked after hours. Working all day and then volunteering nights to help the people that nobody else would help…” She shook her head. “It was no use. All these people were beyond help.”

“Why’d you do it then,” Vandal snorted.

Anna shrugged. “I guess I wanted to make daddy proud,” she said with a scornful smile. “Anyway. There was this girl there, studying to be a doctor. She volunteered just like me. We were there at the same time a lot… Her name was Beth and I liked her. I guess… I guess I thought I would have been like her if I had only been a little more naïve.” Anna picked up her glass and took a sip. “Beth wasn’t stupid though, she was clever, she would have been a good doctor.”

The decided past tense didn’t escape Vandal and he could guess where this was going.

“So we worked together,” Anna sighed. “And like I said, I liked her. She was a ray of reason in a stupid world. We both tried to pretend we were helping, making a difference. Even though we knew we were hardly making a dent in the endless supply of self-inflicted misery...”

She emptied her glass and Vandal silently filled it again. He knew how this story was going to end, but somehow he still wanted to hear it. To his inebriated mind there was something wondrous about seeing the emotions flicker violently across Anna’s face.

“Obviously we got a lot of sex workers,” Anna continued her story. “Like any free clinic. Women, men, all ages. A lot of them needed blood tests done. A _lot_ of them kept coming back.” She sullenly swirled the whiskey around in her glass and muttered: “And after a while we noticed that most of them had symptoms of extreme anaemia... Without any of their blood work showing the reason why. They all got better after a blood transfusion. Beth said it was like they had suffered mayor blood loss. Except there wasn’t any visible trauma that could have caused that…” She gave him a wry smile. “You know where this is going, don’t you?” she said darkly.

“I can guess,” Vandal admitted. “But I told you _my_ tragic backstory, so keep talking, princess.”

Anna grimaced at him and leaned back, staring at the ceiling so he could no longer see her face.

“They kept coming back. Always with the same symptoms. We started keeping track of them and Beth questioned them more and more pressingly. But she said it seemed like they literally didn’t _know_ what had happened to them. Beth said they were scared though. Considering they were all prostitutes I told Beth to keep an eye out for signs of blood play, needle marks, cuts, _anything_. But she found nothing…nothing but the marks on their necks…”

Slowly she came to sit forward again and she looked into Vandal’s eyes with a weary expression.

“I should have seen it right away, but I didn’t make the connection. Neither did Beth. We just kept on working, hoping that we’d solve it eventually. Until one day Beth came into my lab looking almost grey. She was so upset at first she couldn’t even tell me what was wrong. When she had finally calmed down enough to talk she told me that someone had come to the clinic, a woman, and had asked for help. Only there was nothing wrong with her. At least not on the face of it. When Beth took her apart to examine her the woman had grabbed her and demanded blood. She wanted actual blood packs, to take _away_ with her. And Beth explained that she didn’t really remember anything much after that except that she just _gave_ them to her. She didn’t remember why or what the woman had said or even what she looked like. But there were two blood packs missing. Beth was frantic. She kept going on about misuse of hospital property. I tried to calm her down. I told her that at a clinic like this two blood packs would hardly be missed, stuff got lost all the time. But she wouldn’t calm down, so I helped her fiddle with the paperwork a bit. I wanted to write it up like that woman was another prostitute needing a blood transfusion, but Beth wouldn’t let me. She almost _cried_ until I promised to change her to a battered wife that was too afraid to leave her name. Patients came in without ID all the time. It wasn’t like anyone would be able to check…”

She brought her glass to her lips, changed her mind and put it down.

“A week later it happened again. This time Beth gave her even more. She actually broke down crying when she came to tell me. We wrote down there had been two patients this time. It had been exactly a week though and I figured whoever this person was they were a creature of habit. So the next week I decided to keep a very close eye on the ER. Except Beth was so scared she started acting weird, even around me. She wasn’t doing her job properly. And she kept coming to check on me. I guess she was just cracking under the pressure. She was acting up so badly that they told her to go home. She didn’t want to go alone so I told them I’d bring her. We had barely walked round the corner when I heard something in the alley next to the clinic.”

Vandal saw fresh anger flare up in Anna’s eyes. By now he was completely engrossed by her story.

“I went to look, Beth tried to stop me, but before she could I saw that… _thing_. With one of the women we had just helped! One of our _patients_. She was like a rag doll in her arms. I still didn’t understand though. I just stood there staring, until I realized that that woman was actually biting and sucking her neck. I screamed. And then Beth dragged me back to the clinic.”

Anna’s whole face was contorted with rage and her voice had become thick with it.

“I could hardly _breathe_ I was so furious,” she hissed. “Who did that thing think she was?! Those were _my_ patients. People _I_ had decided to help. To _save_. Fucking morons that they were. Morons incapable of taking care of themselves, but nevertheless they were _mine_. Beth had given that thing blood packs three times now, but now I understood that that wasn’t all. All that blood we’d been pumping into those silly girls and boys with their pale faces and their confused eyes… Why did we even fucking bother?! They were being used as goddamn refillable _juice boxes_.”

Anna took a deep breath and tried to steady her voice. “ _Vampires_ ,” she spat. “Dirty fucking parasites, that’s all they are.” She glared at Vandal. “I was going to do something about it. If Beth would have let me, I would have done something about it _immediately_.”

Vandal smirked as he thought that Anna certainly wouldn’t have survived that night if she had.

“Beth was hysterical. I was too angry to listen to her. She was terrified…” Suddenly Anna picked up her glass again and took a couple of long drinks. “Our colleagues didn’t understand what the fuck was wrong with her. Eventually I brought her home. I told her we’d do something about it. Find out exactly what was going on and solve it once and for all.”

She took another drink and this time she stared angrily into nothing instead of continuing her story.

“So, what happened to her?” Vandal prompted. He needed to know.

“I don’t know,” Anna said blankly. “A couple days later she just…disappeared. Not a trace of her. Anywhere. Her parents came to visit me. Apparently she had told them about me. They cried a lot…”

Anna’s voice was cold and distant. Vandal could tell she still had things to say and he hoped she would. There was a big gap to bridge between the bitter, fatherless Anna volunteering at a clinic and the furious researcher determined to experiment on vampires.

“I almost left the clinic,” Anna said darkly. “Didn’t want to be there in the first place. But what other place could I have found out more about that thing? I didn’t know if it would come back. Perhaps it would. If it killed Beth, it would probably come back for me. I didn’t care. But it didn’t.” She took a deep breath, regaining a little composure. “Which was probably a good thing, looking back on it…”

“Certainly good for me,” Vandal grinned.

Her expression changed. “It really could be,” she said sincerely. “If I’m right…if my theory works… You wouldn’t have to choose between having to be human or having to obey the Queen Bitch.”

“So you’d help me kick my habit, filthy addict that I am?” he said with a smirk.

“To complete my research?” Anna said seriously. “To get the proof that we could drain life and health from the monsters that have been draining us? No question about it.”

She sounded a lot more sober than she had done just now, but also very tired. Vandal considered her words. Before she had actually explained some of the science behind her ideas he couldn’t judge how plausible her methods were, but her theory didn’t sound as crazy as it had done the first time he had heard it. Why shouldn’t there be a specific agent in the blood responsible for the primary vampire powers. And if there was…it might be the perfect drug.

“I can’t help you get vampire blood thought,” he said thoughtfully. “I’ve got all sorts, but bloodsuckers aren’t very willing to _give_ blood.”

“I didn’t expect you to,” Anna replied. “Haven’t I told you a million times that I never wanted anything from you other than…whatever it is we do.”

“Forgive the ghoul working at the blood bank for not believing the scientist with an obsession with vampires when she tells him her being interested in him is purely a coincidence,” he sneered.

“Well, maybe it isn’t,” Anna admitted. “But I didn’t tell you all this because I expect you to just deliver blood to me.”

“You told me because I got you drunk,” he chuckled.

“I got drunk because I wanted to,” she said decisively. “You weren’t cheap in your choice of whiskey. And I’m not that drunk.”

He snickered. She definitely was.

“Of course you haven’t got bags of vampire blood sitting around,” Anna sighed. “But now you have a reason to want to help me…maybe you’ll find a way.”

Vandal grunted and rubbed his face. He was getting too tired to think. There was a long, exhausted silence. Finally Anna got to her feet.

“I-” she said with a groan. “-am going to bed.”

Vandal looked up at her groggily. She might actually send him home. Sleepovers weren’t her thing. He did _not_ want to move right now.

“You’re a little too tall for my couch,” Anna observed. “But it’ll have to do.” She walked unsteadily into an adjoining room that he presumed was her bedroom and came back with a pillow and a blanket. “There,” she said, dropping them on his lap. Before Vandal could respond she had walked off again and he was sure he heard the click of a lock when she closed the bedroom door behind her.

With arms as heavy as his eyelids he took off his shoes and decided not to bother with his clothes. He stretched out on the couch, drawing the blanket half-heartedly on top of him. Well, this certainly had been an interesting evening. And he had gotten more than he had given for a change. Just before he fell asleep, through the dulling layers of alcohol, Vandal realized this was the first time he had ever spent time with Anna without her even trying to touch him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do love me some backstory! (I hope it wasn't too much in one go.)
> 
> It’s worth noting that Anna’s version of her home life is heavily biased. Richard Deering was not a nice man and let’s just say his wife had never abused any drugs before she married him. Vandal’s description of his family is more accurate, but in between abusing him and each other his parents spent a lot of time covering up all the disturbing shit their little boy did.


	7. Parasite Politics

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Content warnings:** Mention of domestic abuse, mention of torture/experiments, vomiting.

Vandal woke up being particularly thankful for the vampire blood in his system. It prevented him from having an actual hangover. That didn’t mean he didn’t feel anything though, and he definitely felt a little unsteady when he first sat up. He got up from the couch and stretched his arms and legs. There was no sign of Anna having woken up before him. He walked to the room she had disappeared to and turned the doorknob. Sure enough, the door was locked. Or rather barred. There was no lock on this door. Had she installed a latch on the inside? Vandal clicked his tongue. Who had a lock on their bedroom in a one-person apartment? Well, Anna, obviously.

When he turned around, his eye fell on a bookcase with glass doors that was discretely tucked away in a corner. He hadn’t noticed it before. Walking towards it, he saw that on its top shelves Anna’s whole life was displayed. Or at least the presentable parts of her life. Pictures, diplomas, awards, all neatly framed and perfectly placed. Anna with her graduation gown on, Anna and some other teens on a tennis court. Vandal smiled scornfully at the picture perfect accomplishment of it all. There were no really recent pictures of Anna though. In most of them she was standing or sitting beside a tall, proud looking man that had to be her father. They had the same dark grey eyes and even in the pictures where Anna was hardly a teen they had the same calculating smile on their lips. He had light blonde hair though and Anna was much shorter and had a distinctly different general shape of her face. She must take primarily after her mother, Vandal thought with a smile. She must _hate_ that. There wasn’t a single picture of Anna’s mother, at least not that he could discern. That didn’t surprise him. What did surprise him was a picture of Anna at what must be her father’s funeral. She was sitting in the front row of what looked like a relatively full church. Anna was the only one under thirty and sat primly upright, surrounded by what could only be her father’s colleagues. It looked almost like a press photo. Vandal wondered if her father had been important enough for his memorial service to be reported on. He stared at Anna’s face. There wasn’t a trace of sadness or weakness on it. She looked calm and frozen, every inch the princess. Thoughtfully Vandal fixed his attention on the only picture that showed Anna looking almost as she did now. It showed her hugging a pretty girl with warm brown skin and wavy black hair that partially covered up Anna’s face as well as her own. They looked about the same age and Vandal concluded that this had to be Beth.

There was a soft sound in the adjacent room and Vandal turned away quickly. As amusing as it would be to see Anna with a hangover, he’d rather skip out now. He needed time to think over all the things he had found out last night. Until he had made up his mind, he would rather not subject himself to Anna’s teasing and manipulating. He checked his pockets, grabbed his coat and before the bedroom door opened, he had already closed the front door behind him.

♦

Anna heard the door close and breathed a sigh of relief. She really was in no state to face Vandal right now. She had had way too much to drink last night. Before she went to sleep, she had remembered to drink a significant amount of water, so she was not as ill as she might have been, but she still felt and looked a mess.

Perhaps it had been a mistake to tell Vandal quite so much, she thought. But it _had_ worked… Anna was a little ticked off that she didn’t exactly understand how, but she was certain that the more she had talked, the more Vandal had been drawn to her. It was against her general policy to lose control like that and she didn’t like it at all that he had tricked her into losing her temper. But in the end it had worked out in her favour, hadn’t it? She had seen the fascination on his face, she had seen the look in his eyes. Anger clearly turned him on. Anna walked to the bathroom and began to undo her braid. She had guessed from the beginning that being bright and bubbly wouldn’t work on Vandal, so she had opted for mysterious and teasing. She smirked at her reflection. Her approach to him had already been rather forward, but maybe she would have gotten him even sooner if she had been downright aggressive. Anna paused for a second. No…she was being too hasty now. Vandal didn’t like _aggression_ as such – not towards _himself_ at least – he was too dominant for that. She chuckled. God, how he must hate Therese’s guts. Anna felt a little queasy all of a sudden.

No, no thinking about dirty parasites on a weak stomach. She would focus on more pleasant things, like how the things she usually had to hide were an actual advantage in attracting Vandal. Her anger and disdain, her venom and ambition, he actually _liked_ them. Yes, that was it. He liked seeing the _truth_. They both knew something of the twisted way of the world. Maybe he’d even be able to understand her. Would he? Involuntarily her thoughts drifted to Therese again and Anna clenched her teeth. She thought of Vandal, blood streaming down his neck, drinking hungrily from Therese Voerman’s wrist and she felt her stomach turn over. Breathing in sharply she tried to get a hold of herself and she almost managed. Then she remembered the look on Vandal’s face when he told her about the night that Therese had taken him and she threw up.

Angrily she tried to save her hair from getting dirty and swore at herself and the world in general. Her body was not as strong as her mind and she couldn’t forgive it for that. When she had managed to pull herself together again she brushed her teeth and washed her hair with enough vigour to wash her burning anger down to a simmering disdain. If Vandal had any notion of dignity, he would want to break free and she would be able to give him a way. She was certain of that. From what she had seen she believed Vandal _did_ want to break free. Even when he spoke of Therese with devotion and adoration she could see the disgust flickering in his eyes. It was remarkable, really. She had seen ghouls die for their regnants without a second thought. Rejecting humanity and throwing themselves at the feet of creatures that stole their life and claimed to own them. Vandal must have had a particularly strong mind before Therese took him. Anna took a deep breath. She might have found the one ghoul that would actually be willing to sell out his regnant to gain his freedom. He clearly couldn’t stand the thought of being human and in a way she couldn’t blame him for that. If she had met him earlier, before his corruption, she might have taught him that superiority had always existed within humanity. Where would the flock be without shepherds? Just because the sheep were morons was no reason to start sympathizing with the wolves. She smiled. Besides, it was the prerogative of the shepherd to decide which of her charges were worth sacrificing. Perhaps it was too late to teach him that now. It was not necessary anyway. She had his curiosity, she had his attention, now she only needed to gain a little of his trust. Just enough to make him believe she could help him and to make him willing to help her.

By the time she was clean and dressed Anna felt refreshed and full of renewed determination. This was no time to sulk about a little loss of control. Vandal had temporarily had the upper hand, she should rejoice in that, it meant he was deeply enough involved to want to manipulate her. The fact that he had snuck out without seeing her was proof enough that he wasn’t exactly sure of himself right now. If he was wavering as to what to do she shouldn’t leave him to his own devices in making up his mind.

♦♦♦

“Want some company?”

Vandal turned around. Anna was standing in the doorway of the blood bank.

“How easy is it for you to get keys to places?” he sneered.

“Very,” she smiled smugly.

Vandal thought of the dimwits in the security department and grinned. “Well, it’d be rude to say no to a lady, wouldn’t it?” he said mockingly, gesturing to a chair.

“Abominably rude,” Anna winked and she sat down, swinging one leg over the other. “You looked incredibly bored just now. Slow night?”

“Hm,” he hummed in agreement.

Anna sat back comfortably and watched him idly check his records. “Are those the hospital’s or yours?” she asked curiously after a while.

“These are mine, those are the clinic’s,” he replied, tapping on the different papers. This time the voice telling him that it was dangerous to tell her things like that didn’t even try to speak up. She knew anyway, it was no use denying it. Anna made an appreciative sound by way of response and Vandal grinned. She must falsify most of her research documentation herself. He was almost tempted to suggest a show and tell.

“That reminds me,” Vandal said. “There’s something you haven’t told me yet.”

“Oh trust me, there are a lot of things I haven’t told you yet,” Anna teased.

“I _don’t_ trust you,” Vandal replied. “But all I care about at the moment is that you said you’d experimented on vampires before.” He gave her a meaningful look. He couldn’t imagine this girl hunting someone down on her own, besides, she wasn’t stupid enough to put herself in danger. Not when she wasn’t in the throes of emotion at least.

“Hm…” Anna hummed. “As soon as I was sure no one at the clinic had any information I left, but I didn’t stop looking. First I asked around in the medical community, when that didn’t give me anything I started looking in… less savoury places.”

Vandal gave her a sideways glance, but resisted the urge to ask for details.

“I found a lot of nonsense and superstition,” Anna continued. “And then I found the hunters.”

Vandal raised his eyebrows. In his experience most hunters were pretty bad at spotting ghouls, so they never particularly worried him, but they certainly were a presence in Santa Monica. Up until recently there had been quite a few of them around.

“They were doing their best to be secretive, of course,” Anna said, rolling her eyes. “But they were happy enough to start bragging about their work when I had dropped a few hints about my knowledge. I was lucky, one of them was interesting enough to hook up with and after that it was a piece of cake to get access to their information.” Anna saw the look on Vandal’s face and she said casually: “It’s one of my bigger weaknesses. I’m utterly incapable of faking sexual attraction. But hunter boy did just fine and when I’d known him for a while they had a big showdown somewhere and they took prisoners. Vampire prisoners. Which gave me some subjects to experiment on.”

Vandal watched her face closely. She was nowhere near as emotional as she had been last time talking about her past. Had it been the alcohol? Or did she just not care that much about this? He did though. “Tell me about it,” he grinned. “Everything.”

“About that hunter?” Anna laughed teasingly. “There’s no need for that, he wasn’t _that_ good.”

“No…” Vandal grimaced. “About those _experiments_ you did.”

“Oh, _that_ ,” Anna smirked. “Well-”

There were footsteps in the corridor and Vandal raised his hand. Anna immediately stopped talking, but she made no attempt to leave. Vandal went to the window and greeted his customer.

“Greetings Helter Skelter,” he grinned. “We don’t see your Anarch kind here often. Has the well Downtown run dry?”

“Shut your mouth and sell your wares,” the Gangrel replied curtly.

Vandal was very aware of the fact that Anna was in the room with him, but he knew the vampire couldn’t see her. He had no reason to be interested in her even if he could have. If only he knew what they had been talking about just a moment before. It made him grin even wider as he showed the vampire what he had on offer.

“Where were we?” Vandal said, turning around to face Anna again as soon as the customer left.

Anna was still looking at the window with some sort of weirded out fascination.

“You really shouldn’t zone out like that,” Vandal chuckled. “People might think you’re crazy.” She blinked and he grinned at her.

“As I was saying,” Anna said, pulling a face. “The hunters took a couple of vampires prisoner. I convinced my… _admirer_ to ask his superiors to let me in to study them. They told him no so he brought me to meet them, after which they said yes.”

Vandal snorted.

“And that,” Anna said. “Is how I got my first batch of vampire blood. I took some samples and started experimenting.” She grimaced. “After the first test I already knew I’d need more,” she said, but Vandal interrupted her.

“No, no, no, princess,” he smirked. “Don’t you skip over the best bit.” He moved towards her until he was leaning over her, almost standing against her and Anna looked up at him with questioning amusement.

“What?” she asked.

“What did you do to the bloodsuckers?” Vandal asked eagerly. “Did you study them yourself, or did you get your _boyfriend_ to do it?”

“Please,” Anna laughed. “As if I’d let my work be done by others.”

“Then tell me _exactly_ what you did,” Vandal grinned. “Every detail…”

“I don’t think I should be humouring you,” Anna smiled teasingly. “Not here, anyway.”

“What, did you want a change of scenery?” Vandal muttered, leaning forward towards her.

“I can wait for your shift to end,” she said with a small smirk.

She was really good at inviting herself, wasn’t she. Vandal suddenly remembered something and, moving away from her, he said: “If the hunters were so convenient for you, why didn’t you go to the hunters here?”

Anna made a tutting sound and shook her head. “The Society of Leopold has suffered some rather significant losses in these parts,” she said. “Even the hunters back east were talking about it. The hunters here are too skittish now. Not worth the risk. Besides…there are drawbacks to working with them.”

There could be no doubt about that, Vandal thought. Religious freaks.

“Something _you_ never told me was what happened to your parents,” Anna reminded him.

“Hm, maybe I don’t feel like humouring _you_ either,” he retaliated.

“Aw?” Anna coaxed. “I’ll make it worth your while…”

“It’s not a very interesting story, princess,” Vandal chuckled. “Dad hit Ma one too many times, cracked her head right open. I guess at least someone cared enough to notice her disappearance, because a couple months later they dragged dear old Dad off to prison.”

“When was this?” Anna asked.

“Years ago,” Vandal said indifferently. “But after I left home if that’s what you meant.”

She looked thoughtful for a moment and was about to answer when there was a sudden, sharp ring of a telephone. It took Vandal a moment to realise it was his cell phone.

“What the hell?” Vandal grunted and he grabbed it off the counter. “Vandal Cleaver,” he answered it.

“I require your services.”

“Miss Voerman?” he asked nervously, standing up straight. Therese never called. She emailed him when she wanted something. He immediately felt Anna’s eyes on him, but he turned away from her.

“I am having a meeting at the Asylum,” Therese said coolly. “We shall need a generous supply of your best blood. Bring it immediately, and dress in something more appropriate than those dirty scrubs.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Vandal replied blankly.

There was a click and the line went dead. Vandal turned around and grimaced at Anna, who had risen from her seat with a curious look on her face.

“The Bitch Goddess has summoned me,” he said.

“To the Asylum?” Anna asked.

“Where else,” Vandal said curtly. “Get out, I need to get blood.”

Anna followed him to the refrigerated storage. “Can I come?” she asked innocently.

“No,” he gave a flat denial.

“You’re mean,” Anna whined childishly.

He didn’t reply and took out eight bags of the highest quality blood he could find. He put them in a cooler and turned to Anna. “Go home, princess,” he ordered. “We can finish story time later.”

Various expression of discontent passed across Anna’s face before it settled into a compliant smile. “Alright,” she said. “Have fun playing puppy to the Bitch.” She turned around with a bounce in her step, but before she could walk away Vandal grabbed her arm.

“Are you going to follow me?” he growled. She was giving in too easily, he didn’t buy it.

“I might…”she grinned.

Vandal snarled at her, but his throat betrayed him and changed it into a chuckle. “Come on then, spoilt brat.”

Cheerfully Anna followed him to the locker room, wrapped in several layers of enjoyment and smugness. Vandal changed his scrubs for his normal clothes. Anna meanwhile was humming absentmindedly and took off her blazer and untucked her shirt from her blouse.

Vandal watched her take the hair clip out of her hair and shake it loose and tried not to look too interested. “Are you done?” he asked impatiently.

“Are you?” Anna retorted and she reached out to straighten the collar of his shirt.

“Don’t fuss over me, woman,” Vandal snapped.

“Oh, but you need to look your best for your _mistress_ ,” she sneered.

Vandal glared at her and pushed her out of the way. She followed him out of the door with a self-satisfied laugh.

♦

The Asylum was full of noise and heat. Vandal told Anna to wait at the bar. Silently she moved away from him and sat down, a picture of obedience now she had already gotten her way. Vandal threw one last frustrated look her way before heading to the elevator. She batted her eyes at him. Vandal groaned inwardly. She was a nuisance, he’d be distracted thinking about her being downstairs all the time.

He was wrong. As soon as he stepped out of the elevator Therese’s scent hit him and he forgot about Anna. What could Therese want? What did she need so much blood for all of a sudden? He had brought her the usual delivery not too long ago. Had she gotten hurt? An iron fist squeezed his heart and panic flared up inside him. He almost opened the door to Therese’s office in a frantic impulse, but at the last moment he remembered to knock.

“Enter,” Therese’s cool voice replied.

Relief washed over Vandal when he heard she sounded normal and he was not even capable of resenting himself for it. He went in and saw to his surprise that Therese was not alone. There were three other vampires with her, that all looked at him when he entered. Vandal recognized them immediately. Maximillian Strauss, Isaac Abrams and Velvet Velour. They hardly ever left their respective territories, but he needed to know the important vampires so that if they _did_ , he could take care to treat them with the utmost respect. Everybody knew he was Therese’s ghoul and if some stuck up vampire felt themselves slighted by her through him, she’d make him pay for it. No wonder Therese had wanted the best his stock had had to offer. These were without question the most powerful vampires of LA, perhaps excluding the unofficial Anarch leader Nines Rodriguez.

“Ah,” Therese said with a smug expression. “The refreshments.”

She gestured to some crystal glassware laid out on her desk. Vandal bowed his head and walked towards it. What was he now, a goddamn waiter? _Anything._ _Anything for Therese. This must be so important to her…_ He began to unpack the blood packs, but kept watching the vampires from the corner of his eyes.

“While my ghouls sees to our drinks,” Therese said smoothly. “Let me thank you all for coming. This unrest in our city has lasted long enough, it is time for a new status quo.”

“It surprises me, _Isaac_ ,” Strauss said deliberately. “That you should accept Miss Voerman’s invitation after declining mine.”

“We have always been on friendly terms,” the Toreador replied with an air of distant civility. “At the time of your summons, however, you seemed more concerned with making Ventrue heads roll than with maintaining old bonds.”

Strauss didn’t reply. His new position as Prince was still highly disputed. He had not even officially claimed the title. A well-placed cautiousness perhaps, considering the Anarch were looking a whole lot more sympathetic than the Camarilla at the moment.

“Don’t take it personal, Max,” Velvet smiled. “Isaac never could say not to a lady.”

She winked at Therese and Vandal repressed an amused sneer. Therese didn’t like Velvet, he knew that for a fact. But Isaac Abrahams was somewhat of an adopted sire to Velvet and she had _some_ kind of relationship with Strauss, even though the Tremere Primogen tried to deny it in public. Therese was too clever to slight the only other female vampire with any legitimate position of power in the LA area, which had to be the reason why Velvet was here now.

“You’ll be happy to know the Ventrue situation is now under control,” Strauss said in a restrained voice.

Vandal poured the blood from the mundane plastic into the fine crystal and inhaled its scent. It mingled with the sweet smell of Therese and he cursed the fact that the others were here. Compared to Therese they absolutely reeked.

“Of course it is a great comfort to know-” Therese smiled. “-that order has been restored Downtown, but we are still having to deal with the great losses we suffered. My clan, for instance, is still without a Primogen.”

Vandal held his breath. Was that what Therese wanted? Did she want to become her clan elder? He still remembered the night Therese had found out about the death of the Malkavian Primogen, Dr. Alistair Grout. The report at the time had been that he had been killed by Nines Rodriguez. Therese had been furious. She had respected Grout and never could stand Nines, if only because Jeanette liked him.

“You think your kind is in need of immediate guidance?” Strauss said.

This was a deliberate sting, Therese was usually more likely to deny than confirm her Malkavian heritage. She must want this position of power very badly, Vandal thought.

“It’s a terrible thing to lose someone you depend on,” Velvet interjected feelingly.

Abrahams replied, but Vandal did not hear him. He was thinking about what it would mean if Therese was given the position of Primogen. She had always wanted to be the Baron of Santa Monica. In a way she already was. She controlled too many aspects of the neighbourhood for anyone to deny her power. But an official appointment, agreed on by the other Primogen, that would change a lot. Vandal grinned involuntarily. His mistress would be one of the first among her kind. What a triumph for her. His face fell. Would that mean she would leave Santa Monica? Perhaps being a Primogen was worth more to her than being a Baron. _Would she leave him behind?_ The thought made him ill, but there was a glib little voice at the back of his head that told him it would be perfect. He would still serve Therese, but he would be free from her endless scrutinizing. He’d be…alone. Except he was never alone. She was always in his head, always in his veins.

Staring at the red liquid seeping out of the bags, he involuntarily thought of Anna. What about her? He felt a strange sort of conflict inside of him that he couldn’t place. Why did she matter? Why was she even a person to be considered? What if… What if he told Therese about Anna? Not everything, but enough. He could tell her how clever she was, how dangerous, how interesting her research was. Because Therese _would_ be interested. If Anna could purify vampire blood, who was to say that wouldn’t be useful to vampire’s as well? It might eliminate some of the pesky drawbacks that Therese tried so desperately to hide. The Malkavian insanity that Jeanette had displayed so more clearly than her, but that Vandal felt thumping in his brain with alarming regularity. Yes, Therese would be interested in Anna. He might convince her to take her too, make her into a ghoul. She would stay at the hospital, with him. She’d be like him. Except…would she be like him? Still capable of that gorgeous hatred of hers? Would she despise Therese like he did? _No_. _Love her like he did._ _He adored her. Worshipped her._

“Vandal!”

He blinked. He had been standing idly over the filled glasses for a while now. Therese was staring at him with cold impatience.

“Forgive me, Miss Voerman,” he muttered, taking the tray and serving them their drinks. “Please excuse my voices.”

There was a flash of smug disdain in Maximillian’s face and Therese’s eyes sparked with fury.

“Thank you, darling,” Velvet cooed when he offered her her glass. Vandal tried not to look at her. Velvet was beautiful. Flawless. To look at her was an insult to Therese.

“That will be all,” Therese said coldly.

 _Why? Why must she send him away?_ Cold, conceited, scheming bitch. _He loved her,_ _loved her_ , loathed her. “Yes, ma’am,” he whispered, and with a bow he left the room.

Outside, in the hallway, he took a couple of deep breaths. He didn’t want things to change. He didn’t want Therese to leave. If only there was a way…a way to… He dug his nails hard into his arm and abruptly opened his eyes. A way to get Anna her vampire blood. Freedom. He couldn’t even remember what it felt like. As long as Therese was inside him he’d never be free. No matter how far away she went.

As the elevator descended the music grew louder and louder. Vandal stepped back into the club and was thankful for the almost overpowering mix of human smells. They were strong enough to at least distract him for a while. He looked around for Anna, but didn’t see her at the bar. He felt his shoulders tense up. If she had snuck upstairs to listen in on- No, there she was. On the dance floor. She was dancing with another girl, shaking her hair and laughing at something the other shouted playfully in her direction. Vandal stared at her. She looked so _alive_. So carefree and normal. The corners of his mouth twitched as he saw a couple of guys glance at her. Would they ever guess what kind of bruises she was hiding underneath those expensive clothes? He smirked. If she’d only throw up her arms a little higher her blouse might move up enough to expose the imprints of his fingers on her hips. She didn’t though. Of course she didn’t. He watched her intently until she turned around and saw him. Her eyes sparked and she held out her hand to him. The other girl turned to look at him too and was clearly surprised. Anna motioned for him to join them. He shook his head. Whatever she had in mind, he was not in the mood. Anna looked disappointed, said something to the girl and crossed the dance floor to get to him.

“Are we leaving?” she asked.

“I am,” he said bluntly.

She smiled and took his arm as if he had offered it to her. More than one person watched them go as they left the bar together.

“Why do you do that?” Vandal grunted as they walked to the hospital parking lot.

“Do what?” Anna asked innocently.

“The demure little lady act,” he said. “It’s bullshit.”

“You like it though,” she smiled.

“Do _you_?” he sneered.

“I never do _anything_ I don’t like,” she whispered meaningfully.

By the time Vandal remembered that he had not at all been planning to take Anna home with him, they were already halfway there. Anna tapped her fingers on the dashboard of his car thoughtfully. She didn’t say anything until they were back at his apartment, when she began curiously:

“So… What did the Queen Bitch need all that blood for? Having some friends over, was she?”

Vandal grimaced. “Something like that. Made me wait on them like a fucking servant.” He sat down on the couch.

“You _are_ her servant,” Anna said bluntly.

Vandal snarled at her.

“A lovely little parasite tea party then,” Anna said sarcastically, ignoring his aggression and sitting down beside him.

“More like a secret congregation,” Vandal snarked. “Between them two of those bloodsuckers control most of LA.”

“They’re that important?” Anna asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Oh yes,” he said darkly. He gave her a sideways glance. “Wouldn’t you like to get your hands on _them_ ,” he chuckled.

“Oh, I would,” Anna said darkly. She smiled at him without losing any of the unsettling look in her eyes. “Shall I tell you what I did with the parasites I _did_ get my hands on?”

Vandal grinned. “Oh yes,” he said, drawing her closer.

She laughed and instead of talking she pressed her lips against his. He kissed back, but as soon as she pulled away he let his lips travel down to her neck and mumbled against her skin: “Go on, princess, tell me what you did.”

“Well, like I said, the hunters back in Philly believed in taking prisoners,” Anna picked up where she left off earlier. “They brought as many vampires and ghouls as possible back to their base and tried to torture them for information.”

“What did they do to them?” Vandal asked eagerly.

“I’m not entirely sure,” Anna said amusedly. “They never actually allowed me to sit in on their sessions.”

He made a disappointed noise.

“I don’t think they were very successful in getting information,” Anna mused. “Not with the vampires anyway. But they did at least know out how to restrain them properly. They used fire to torture them, they branded them.” She smiled. “After a lot of asking they chained a relatively submissive one to a table for me and let me take some of his blood.”

Vandal raised his head to look at her. “How did that work?” he asked.

“The usual way,” Anna said. “It surprised me, but I didn’t need any special equipment. Normal needles worked just fine. I had to use vacumated blood tubes, of course, since it’s not actually pumping round their body.”

“Was he awake?” Vandal grinned eagerly.

“Oh yes,” Anna whispered. “He thought I had just come to torture him again, but when I started taking his blood he suddenly started to struggle.”

No matter how excited he was, Vandal was still very aware of the way Anna’s eyes were shining. A blush was creeping onto her cheeks and the corners of her mouth twitched into involuntary smiles.

“I didn’t even hurt him,” Anna said. “Not even a little, but he screamed his head off. Screeched at me to stop. Demanded to know what I was doing.” She grinned at the memory. “I told him I wanted to see what would happen to a vampire that was completely drained.” She let out a particularly girlish giggle and said: “I remember bending over him, smiling straight into his face and asking him: _do you think you’ll dream?_ ”

Her eyes widened in affected derangement as she imitated her own voice in a creepy tone. She started giggling again and as her giggle turned into actual laughter Vandal laughed with her, pulling on her until she was sitting on his lap. He buried his face in her neck again, inhaling her scent and Anna ran her hands through his hair, catching her breath.

“He didn’t have a lot of blood left in him,” she said with a regretful sigh. “It was like that with all of them. By the time the hunters had them contained, they were nearly starved…”

“Pity,” Vandal said, looking up at her.

She smiled and shrugged. “It was a start.”

“You should have come here last fall,” Vandal mused. “You could have experimented on that thin blood.”

Anna raised an eyebrow. “Thin blood?” she asked.

Vandal smirked. He was pleased to have found something she didn’t know about. He was feeling generous, however, so he answered immediately. “Thin bloods are a walking nightmare for the bloodsuckers. A nasty reminder that they aren’t as infallible as they think.”

Now he really had her interest.

“Of course I only know what the Queen Bitch chose to tell me,” he grimaced. “But thin bloods are bloodsuckers minus a lot of their strength and powers. No clan will take them in, sometimes they don’t even look like them.”

“But they are made by… _normal_ vampires?” she seemed to struggle to speak the words at all.

“Oh yes,” he grinned. “That’s the sting. As far as I can tell none of them have figured out _why_.”

Anna listened in raptures to his explanation of the thin blood’s weakened powers.

“Now the other night crawlers, they don’t like seeing what they’d be reduced to if they would only lose a little of their power. So they do what all siblings do to their weaker brothers and sisters: they make their life hell. Well, _more_ of a hell. Thin bloods can’t hunt anywhere where other bloodsuckers hunt. They’re chased away almost everywhere even if they don’t and if they set one foot out of line it’s the eternal death for them.” He smirked. “One of them broke into the blood bank, trying to steal some precious nectar. Pity for her that she ran into me.”

“You caught her?” Anna said and she made no effort to hide her admiration. “On your own?”

“Like I said,” Vandal grinned. “They are weak and she was particularly dim.” He smiled wistfully. “She was a treasure though. A human would have died a lot quicker.”

Anna gave him a pressing look. “You mean you sold her blood?” she asked.

“It wasn’t as sweet as yours would have been,” he chuckled. “But still a shame to let it go to waste, don’t you think?”

“Vampires drink vampire blood?” Anna asked, astonished.

“What, you thought they’d be above that?” Vandal grimaced. “No, no, no. No honour among bloodsuckers, princess.”

Anna looked positively fascinated. “So their blood is closer to human’s?” she asked. “Thin bloods, I mean. Can they sire?”

“I think so,” Vandal said. “The Queen Bitch said something about them spreading the defect.”

Anna’s face fell slightly. “Ah…” she said. “That means I’d still have to purify it and if their blood is weaker it would probably produce inferior vitae.”

“It doesn’t matter either way,” Vandal said. “The little thin blood was freed by…someone.”

“Really?” Anna smiled, wrapping her arms around his neck. “That must have made you very angry.”

“Ah well,” he grinned. “Forgive and forget. They sent me a replacement…among other things.”

Anna was still laughing at his joke about forgiveness and didn’t pick up on this last hint. Instead she returned to her earlier fascination: “So your customers don’t care whether you sell them human blood or the blood of a ghoul or thin blood?”

“Addicts aren’t picky,” Vandal chuckled. “And for the customers that _are_ there are other options.”

“What options?” Anna asked curiously.

Vandal idly played with a strand of her hair and chuckled. “There’s blood and there’s blood, princess. Some of the bloodsuckers imagine they’re quite the connoisseurs and they’ll gladly pay more for a better vintage.”

“Don’t tell me blood ages like wine,’ Anna said, looking at him with a disturbed fascination.

“Rather the contrary,” Vandal grinned. “Young blood is always better…but there are other factors. Blood like yours, for example…” He snaked his hand further into Anna’s hair and pulled her head back a bit to expose her neck. “…would fetch a considerably better price than most.”

“Why?” Anna demanded to know, making no attempt to pull back her head. “What makes the difference?”

“All sorts of things,” Vandal said, releasing her hair from his grip. “I’m an expert, I know good blood when I smell it.”

Anna shook her head and laughed. She leaned into him and pressed a soft kiss on his cheek. Vandal expected a kiss on the mouth to follow it, but instead she stroked his neck, seemingly studying it.

“What are you doing?” he asked suspiciously.

“You don’t have any marks,” Anna said, looking him in the eye again.

Vandal smirked. “Bite marks?” he scoffed. “I’m a ghoul, even if there were any they would heal.”

“The Queen doesn’t drink from her subjects?” Anna asked innocently.

“The _Bitch_ prefers her blood removed from the original source,” Vandal replied coldly.

“Does she now?” Anna hummed.

“She must be the only one of them that actually prefers her blood in bags,” Vandal said. “Most of them at least have a good enough taste to dislike the anticoagulants and preservatives. Everybody has a soft spot for the unadulterated product… But she doesn’t drink form the bag. Oh no, no, no. She refuses to drink anything that isn’t served in the finest  crystal. And of course the divine lips are too good to touch the skin of a mere mortal…”

“What about yours though?” Anna said suddenly.

“What?” he grunted.

Anna was staring at him with a strange glow in her eyes. “You drink her blood, right?” she said. “How does that go?”

Vandal grimaced uncomfortably. He didn’t want to talk about that. Therese’s scent was still fresh in his memory, even if it had been mixed with the stink of the other vampires. Her scent was never as strong as when he was drinking her blood… Just thinking about it made his heart race. The taste of Therese’s cold skin on his lips. The feeling of her thick blood slipping past his tongue and down his throat. The fiery warmth it spread through his entire body despite how tepid it truly was. There was movement around him and when Vandal managed to shake Therese from his mind Anna was no longer sitting sideways on his lap, but was now straddling his legs, facing him.

“You left me for a second there,” she cooed and she pressed her lips against his, reminding him who he was with at the moment.

Vandal hardly kissed back, he was too absorbed in the contrast between the cold skin in his mind and the warm skin now pressed against his own.

Anna pulled away and muttered in his ear: “If I knew a way to trick Ther- the Bitch that thinks she owns you…would you do it?”

“What?” Vandal snapped. “How?”

Anna had wrapped her arms tighter around him and nuzzled against his neck. Involuntarily he put his hands on her hips.

“Would you?” she whispered, lips almost touching his ear. “Would you let me experiment with her blood? Would you let me use her like she used you?”

For a moment Vandal closed his eyes and imagined Therese strapped to an operating table and Anna smiling sweetly down on her with a needle in her hand. He shivered. “How?” he asked hungrily.

“You haven’t said you will yet,” Anna whined, holding on to him a little tighter to resist his efforts to push her a way so he could look into her eyes. “Tell me you’ll help me… Let me play with her blood, Vandal… Only for a while… Only until there is _nothing left of her to play with_ …”

Her tone of voice, her choice of words, everything was meant to put images in his mind. This time he saw Therese bleeding profusely from the wrists, slumped in a corner, while Anna dipped her bare feet in the swelling pools of red on the cold tile floor. He could see the pain in Therese’s eyes. The shock, the fear…the helplessness.

“Not very good for a girl’s ego, to leave her for another woman when you’re right here with her,” Anna complained teasingly.

He hardly heard her and he barely registered the next words she spoke, although they were spoken with more intent:

“Do you think I could leave a mark where she couldn’t?”

A jolt went through Vandal’s body and he was jerked out of his fantasy and into the present when Anna bit him. He yelped, but before he could react any further she let go and ran her tongue over his neck to soothe the pain. Adrenaline raced through Vandal’s veins.

“Do that again,” he growled threateningly. “And I’ll-”

Anna bit down even harder than before. Vandal gasped, grabbed her and threw her off him, lunging on top of her to hold her down. She was looking up at him laughingly, only struggling for pretence and Vandal felt the spark of anger flow away in favour of other feelings.

“You tell me how,” he growled, lowering himself on top of Anna. “And I’ll deliver you every last drop of the Bitch’s blood.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I _really_ wanted to get some of the other interesting characters from Bloodlines in here, but most of them are so powerful (and clever) that I can’t let them too close to Vandal or Anna without ending this story very quickly (with their gruesome deaths). But I hope this little peek into the current political climate of the LA kindred community was enjoyable!
> 
> Ludo has another song I think is perfect for Vandal: [The Horror Of Our Love](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kQ-0bBkMIY&ab_channel=TheSelasVictoria%20).
> 
> Thanks for the guest kudo's! It's much appreciated. 
> 
> Special thanks to UncannyPrincess, Nikola and Dee the Bee for their support!


	8. Eyes Wide Open

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Content warnings:** None, except needles and blood, you know the drill.

In the cold light of day things never looked or sounded as good as they did in the heat of the moment and the dead of night. Vandal had been fully convinced by Anna’s plan the first time she had explained it, but now, staring at the equipment laid out on her desk, he wasn’t so sure anymore.

“Do you think it will work?” Anna asked eagerly. “Will she fall for it?”

He swallowed. “She might,” he said.

“Surely you can make a better guess than that,” Anna pressed him. “You know her.”

“No one knows the Queen Bitch,” Vandal said darkly.

Anna sighed and started to put the needles, connectors and vacumated tubes back into their respective cases.

“If anyone can sell it, it’s you,” she said emphatically, but there was more flattery than certainty in her voice.

Vandal grimaced. “It’s…clean,” he said after a short silence. “She’ll like that.”

“She likes to deny what she is,” Anna said smugly. “Well, this will help with that, won’t it?”

He gave her a dark look. “And if she lets me take her blood,” he frowned. “You are _certain_ you’ll be able to extract the vitae.”

“Yes,” Anna said resolutely.

“And you’re certain it will _work_ ,” he pressed. She had told him all this before, but it was really fucking important. He could _not_ skip a dose of blood. He’d go insane. Well, more insane. If he was giving the blood to Anna he had to be sure she could give him something better in return.

There was not even a second of hesitation in her voice before she answered again: “Yes.”

Vandal pinched the bridge of his nose. He must be out of his mind for even considering this.

“I’ll need at least 200 cc to work with,” Anna said seriously. “But if you can bring me that much, I’ll have enough to do tests _and_ give you something better than that disgusting blood to get your strength up.”

 _Disgusting… She had no idea what she was talking about._ Vandal refused to look at her. “If it goes right I’ll have about a pint,” he grunted. If…if… _if_ … It wasn’t a very comforting word.

“That would be more than generous of her,” Anna said and when he met her eyes she grinned at him with a new sort of conviction. “I _know_ you will convince her. She’ll fall for it. And she’ll walk to her own downfall with her eyes wide open.”

Vandal wished he could share her confidence, but every part of his ghoulish nature was squirming in fear and horror. He could hear the cries and whimpers at the edge of his mind. He made an effort to focus on Anna, and saw that her face had fallen a little.

“What if she demands you drink it in front of her…”she said, biting her lip.

“She won’t,” Vandal shook his head. “She’ll be more than eager to avoid seeing what she does to me.” He felt a painful tightness in his chest, but he ignored it. “No, if she falls for it, she’ll go for it all the way.”

If she _didn’t_ fall for it… Well, then he’d die. And Anna too. Anna first, probably. If Therese only _suspected_ he had ulterior motives in offering to change their method of exchanging blood, she would question him and he would not be able to lie to her. Not for long anyway.

He had tried before. Lying to her about the income from the blood bank for instance. But even though he could just about manage to speak the words, Therese could always tell something was off. When she questioned him directly, fixing her full attention on him, he could no longer think straight. She owned him and she had control of his words as much as of his mind and body.

Anna seemed to guess his line of thought. “There is no need to lie to her as such,” she said carefully. “You only have to offer her the equipment. _She_ gets to choose. It’s all completely voluntary. We’re not even harming her.”

“That is a flaw in this plan,” Vandal growled. “Not an advantage.” Oh, what he wouldn’t give to be able to just walk up to Therese and slit her wrists. The thought had hardly been formed and he already felt his body contract with shame and self-hate. _How could he even **think** such a thing._ _How dare he-_

“ _I_ know that,” Anna said, calmly witnessing the tremors passing through his body. “And _Vandal_ knows that. But the Queen Bitch’s sweet little ghoul _doesn’t_ , and I’m talking to him too.”

Vandal’s head cleared. He had changed his mind. _That_ was the person whose wrists he wanted to slit. “Oh,” he said sourly. “It’s no use talking to _him_. He only listens to the Bitch.”

“I know,” Anna whispered, walking around her desk to stand against him. “Which is why we’re going to kill him.”

Vandal stared at her. Sometimes it was like she could actually read his thoughts.

Anna smiled. “That’s what we’re doing, Vandal,” she said. “My vitae will kill him and set you free. All I need…is a little blood from the Bitch that pretends she owns you.”

It was almost poetic, he thought with a grimace. With a sudden movement he grabbed the case with equipment. There was no way he _couldn’t_ try, not now there actually might be a way out. “Right,” he said sardonically. “I’ll go prepare my own suicide then, shall I?”

Anna’s eyes sparked. She obviously was having a hard time repressing her excitement. “Don’t you want a good-luck kiss?” she teased.

“Kiss yourself,” he grunted, moving to the door. “This goes wrong and we’re both dead.”

He took a little pleasure in seeing Anna’s smile falter before he slammed the door, but not much. Bitterly he wondered if Anna even cared about dying. _He_ did. Life might suck, but that did not make death any more appealing. Then again, there were worse things than dying. The first time he had tried to lie to Therese she had found it somewhat amusing, but the second time she had been less forgiving. At first she had threatened to cut him loose, not even kill him, just abandon him. She had made him beg and when he had, she had used her Dementation on him. Vandal felt sick just thinking about it. To suffer Dementation was worse than being subjected to Dominate, at least to him it was. It felt like his own brain was turning against him. He could still remember the choked laughter ringing in his ears, before he had felt his sanity starting to leak from his ears in cold, shivering drips.

Vandal felt a nasty sting and realized he had been clawing at the back of his neck without realizing it. He cursed softly when he saw the blood on his finger nails. The scratches would heal, but he couldn’t face Therese covered in blood. She _despised_ mess. He went into the Asylum and ducked into the bathroom to wash his hands and neck. As he splashed water on the stripes of red just visible underneath his hair, he saw the skin was healing already. He scrubbed his nails, muttering to himself and glanced at the case with equipment. This time Therese’s obsession with cleanliness would work in his favour. She would _like_ Anna’s toys. They were sterile, brand new and expensive. Not like the mismatch of paraphernalia he usually had to make do with at the clinic. No, all this stuff had matching colours and labels and was in pristine condition. Fit for a queen, he grimaced.

When he stepped out of the bathroom, he moved towards the elevator immediately, giving himself no time to change direction when he saw Knox standing beside it.

“Yo, Vandal!” he called out.

“Hi,” Vandal said, through clenched teeth. This was the last thing he needed right now. “What are you doing here?”

“My boss is upstairs with your boss,” Knox said with a grin. “Never thought I’d see the day! Or, night, you know.”

He laughed at his own joke and Vandal made an effort to hide his disgust. What was Therese doing, meeting with a filthy Nosferatu?

“What are you here for anyway?” Knox asked curiously. “What’s that?” He pointed at the case.

Vandal chose his next words carefully. Knox might be a moron, he wasn’t stupid. He had been a bounty hunter and Bertram Tung had chosen him for a reason, when he decided to find out about something he was a goddamn bloodhound. “Fresh blood delivery,” Vandal lied coolly. “Only the best for the Bitch Goddess.”

“Aw, man,” Knox grinned. “That’s a drag.”

“You have no idea,” Vandal replied vacantly, pressing the button for the elevator.

Knox didn’t try to follow him upstairs at least and in the elevator Vandal took a couple of deep breaths. God he wanted to just turn around and leave. But Knox…he was just like Knox. He could despise him all he wanted, but he was. An obedient little servant that came when called and kneeled and grovelled. No more. He couldn’t _bear_ it.

When he knocked on the door of Therese’s office he could hardly feel his hands. He was sure he wasn’t trembling and he knew he looked calm, but his skin felt like it was trying to strangle him.

“Enter,” Therese called out.

He exhaled slowly, and opened the door. As soon as he stepped inside he smelled the putrid strength of Nosferatu blood. Bertram Tung was standing opposite Therese, beside her desk.

“Perfect timing,” Therese said coolly. “As we had just finished.”

“Right,” Tung rasped. “I’ll be going then.”

“Pleasure finally doing business with you,” Therese replied, in a tone of voice that almost made Vandal smile. No one could wrap hate and condescension in politeness like she could.

“The pleasure was all mine, Miss Voerman,” Tung replied, walking past Vandal to the door. At the last moment he turned back with his hand on the doorknob and gave her an insincere grin. “Oh, and, my condolences on the loss of your sister.”

Cold fury contorted Therese’s face and Vandal was torn between hatred and glee, seeing her so put down by a lowlife like Tung. Whatever Therese had had to do to Jeanette – had she really just sent her away? – he _knew_ Tung had something to do with it. The Nosferatu left and Vandal stood back respectfully, waiting for Therese to be ready for him. He heard her utter a repressed hiss before she swallowed her anger and turned towards him. Her grey eyes immediately darted to the case in his hand.

“What is _that_ ,” she demanded to know.

Vandal closed the door that Tung had left slightly askance and had to physically force himself to speak. “The hospital has purchased some new equipment,” he said finally.

“Oh?” Therese replied coolly.

“Easily portable implements for blood collection,” he said submissively. “For…for the convenience and comfort of the giver and the taker.”

“And this should interest me because?” Therese said with an air of impatience.

“Well, ma’am, I thought perhaps this way of giving blood would be more agreeable to you. It’s…cleaner. Less…defiling.”’

Therese gave him a cold stare. Vandal bowed his head. Burning straight through the ever-present hate and adoration was an emotion he did not feel too often. Actual fear. It was very near to freezing him in place and it was all he could do to keep breathing while he waited for Therese to speak.

“Well,” Therese said curtly. “Don’t just stand there, show me this new equipment of yours.”

Hastily he placed the case on her desk and opened it for her. Therese came towards him and he felt his knees grow weak. _He didn’t have to do it, didn’t have to deceive her. …But what if she wanted this?_ She was inspecting the equipment carefully and Vandal could tell she was impressed. There was a certain beauty to it, at least he thought so. _Would she be pleased with it_? _Pleased with him?_ Would she fall for it? He was too nervous to speak.

“I presume these are to draw the blood,” she said, gesturing to the vacumated glass tubes lying in a neat row in their casing, with their valves turned upward.

“Yes,” he whispered.

“They are small,” she observed.

“Unfortunately,” he agreed breathlessly.

“I see,” Therese replied.

Vandal could not read her at all. She seemed at least to consider it. Perhaps the fact that the tubes were so small would hold her back, it would take time to draw enough blood, the process might be tedious to her. He glanced at her as she inspected the needles.

“We would have to fill quite a number of these to get you your required dosage,” she said. “Would it not be wasteful, so many containers?”

“A small price to pay for your comfort, ma’am,” Vandal managed to say.

Therese hummed and crossed her arms, tapping her fingers on her left arm. “It is not a bad idea,” she said thoughtfully. “It is certainly more civilized.”

Vandal held his breath.

“We will try it,” she decided.

“Anything to please you,” Vandal breathed, exhaling slowly.

“When I tell you to stop, you will stop,” Therese warned.

“Of course.”

She sat down and held out her arm. How many times had he taken blood? How many times had he searched for a vein and put in the needle? Right now it seemed like he had never done it before. His fingers were hot against Therese’s cold skin. Very carefully he put the needle in her arm and connected the first tube. He twisted the valve and they both watched the blood spurt into the glass. Vandal felt the hunger burn in his throat, but he controlled himself. Therese seemed somewhat fascinated by the sight of her own blood.

The tube filled quickly. Vandal closed the valve again, sealed the tube and changed it for another. He could feel his hands were sweating and he prayed Therese wouldn’t notice. Would she let him take enough blood? There would be a lot of vials to fill. The silence in the room was pressing. He did not know what to say when Therese did not speak to him first and she did not speak, she just watched the dark redness flow from her arm and coat the glass, mesmerized. Vandal had to remind himself to keep breathing. This was unnatural, it was strange. So clinical and yet _so_ intimate. He could…he could tear the needle out, rip it through her skin. _He could never, **ever** hurt Therese._ Why was he doing this? Mechanically he changed the tubes again. _Why?_ _This mean never kissing her wrist again._ His fingers grazed Therese’s arm and he fought the urge to drop to his knees and kiss her hand.

There were too many damn vials. They were too small. It was agony to see and smell her blood and not be allowed to taste it and it was going to last _forever_. There was a certain rhythm in the turning of valves and changing of tubes now and he was convinced it would never end. He had lost count by now, he was sure his mind was going to pieces. It was scattered all over the place, but it always returned to Therese.

“That’s enough,” Therese said suddenly, as he closed another tube.

“Yes, ma’am,” Vandal muttered. His throat was terribly dry.

Silently he removed the needle from her arm and the little pinprick in Therese’s skin healed instantly. While he put the needle away, she glanced over the rows of sparkling glass tubes, filled with dark red blood. She looked pleased.

“That should be enough, should it not?” she said. Her intonation left no room for disagreement.

“Yes, ma’am,” he agreed senselessly.

“Excellent,” she said. “It didn’t take too long after all.” She nodded. “Yes, this will make a far better arrangement than our previous one.”

Vandal’s throat was too dry to speak again. He just nodded.

“You may leave now,” she said, giving a wave of her hand.

She was already turning away from him. Why was she always so cold? Vandal kept his head down as he carefully closed the case and hurried out of the room without another word. He pressed the button for the elevator over and over again until the doors opened and stepped in without really being aware of what he was doing. All he could think about was the godly nectar he was carrying. He should just drink it now. _All of it. Immediately._ He would not give it to Anna. _She didn’t deserve to have it_. If he just drank it, he’d be free. No, if he gave it to Anna he’d be free. _Even **thinking** of Anna was betraying Therese_! Vandal let out a breath that had been very near choking him from the inside and gasped for air. Fucking Therese… He couldn’t hate her, not while he still longed for her taste and could smell her on his skin. But he could hate his own feelings towards her. With every step he took, he held on tighter to the disgust he felt for his own adoration. He _would_ get this blood to Anna. He _would_ be free.

♦

Before he had even reached it, the door to Anna’s office opened. She looked out and fixed her eyes on him with a strange intensity. Swiftly she stepped aside to let him pass and closed the door behind them. Vandal was pretty sure she was nearly trembling with excitement.

“Did it work?” she asked.

Silently Vandal held the case with equipment out to her.

She glanced at it, but didn’t move.

“Take it away from me,” he snapped. “Before I drink it all.”

Hastily Anna took the case and hurried to the cooler in the back of her office. She opened the case and Vandal heard her make an eager sound. He squeezed his eyes shut for a moment and made an effort to steady his breathing. Anna unlocked the cooler and quickly but carefully lifted the trays with the vials of blood out of the case and placed them in the cooler. Vandal watched her close and lock it again and exhaled slowly. It was out of his hands now. Anna turned around to look at him. Her face was shining with triumph. Before she could say anything, he asked gruffly:

“How long will your purification progress take?”

“A couple days,” Anna said, looking at his strained face. “Can you make it until then?”

Delayed gratification was not Vandal’s strong point and all he wanted right now was to drink Therese’s blood, but he refused to show weakness now. “I’ll be fine,” he growled. “Once I get the Bitch’s scent off me.”

In two seconds Anna’s hands were in his hair and she was pressing her body against his. “Let me help you with that,” she cooed. “It’s the least I can do.”

Vandal almost pushed her away, but he didn’t. Instead he leaned back against the wall while she ran her hands through his hair and gently kissed and nuzzled his neck. None of this felt right, her touches almost irritated him. It was not enough and too much at the same time. But he needed to get Therese out of his head and this _was_ helping. He inhaled deeper and deeper, drinking in Anna’s scent, but didn’t lift a finger to touch her. After a while Anna took his hands and placed them on her hips. He let them fall back to his sides as soon as she let go. Anna took a small step back and looked at his blank expression.

“It’s hard to tell what you want if you give no response whatsoever,” she complained.

“More,” he said curtly.

“More of what?” she asked.

“Of what you were doing,” he said impatiently.

There was a flicker of disapproval on Anna’s face, but instead of saying anything she leaned against him and softly kissed his cheek. Vandal closed his eyes and started breathing deeply again. She ran her hands through his hair again, more slowly this time, and nuzzled his neck, pressing her body against him in different ways. She didn’t say a word, but the sound of her breathing filled his mind. He leaned more heavily against the cold wall and focussed on the contrast with Anna’s warm body pressed against him. Slowly the smells and sounds of Therese became foggy and vague in his mind. He could feel Anna’s heart beating. He realized she was not moving anymore and he opened his eyes. Anna was leaning against him, her head resting on his shoulder, her mouth almost touching his neck. The palms of her hands were spread against his chest and she was almost pressing her hips against his, but not quite. Her breath brushed past his neck and ear as she breathed deeply and slowly, almost as if she was lost in thought herself.

Vandal straightened up and when he moved so did Anna. Vandal looked at her and the muscles in his body tensing up informed him that they had been completely relaxed only a moment ago. He meant to push Anna away from him, but she stepped back the same moment, making his movement seem a lot gentler than it had been intended.

“Three days,” he said, clearing his throat. “Should that do it?”

“Five,” she said, walking to her desk like nothing had happened. “I will let you know if I am done earlier.”

“Fine,” he said and without another word he left. He just saw Anna’s triumphant smile from the corner of his eye before he turned at the door.

Vandal went back to the blood bank, head spinning. There was no way of knowing how this would turn out. He still wasn’t sure if Anna was using him or helping him, but that didn’t matter now. He had decided to play along and now he would make sure he got what he wanted. The worst was over. He had lied in Therese’s face, stolen her blood and resisted the temptation to drink it. The thought of his own disobedience made him lightheaded. Even if it didn’t work, he would always know that he was capable of this. Capable of acting against her. But it better work. For the first time in a decade he could feel freedom almost within his grasp and now he had to have it.

♦♦♦

For three days and nights Vandal didn’t see or hear from Anna. He refused to text or call her, but by the end of the third day he realized that this sudden silence annoyed him. He didn’t quite know why and he settled on suspicion. Was she even here still? Hadn’t she just _left_?

At the beginning of his following shift he went to Anna’s office. She always worked late, she should be there. She wasn’t.

“You better not have skipped out on me, princess,” he muttered. “I _will_ find you if you have.”

He went to the nearest computer and looked up if any of the laboratories – if that was what they deserved to be called – were assigned to Anna. Sure enough, there was one with her name to it. He went there immediately and found the lights on, but the door locked. He knocked loudly. No answer.

“Anna,” he said sharply.

There was still no response, but after a while he heard the lock click and the door opened slightly. Anna looked out, dressed in a white lab coat and with her hair in a tight bun.

“I’m not done yet,” she said.

Vandal studied her face. She looked pale and tired. “You went silent on me,” he observed.

“I’m working,” she replied blankly.

From her body language Vandal could tell she wouldn’t let him into her lab, not voluntarily at least.

“Have you even slept since you started?” he scoffed.

“I’m _working_ ,” Anna repeated impatiently.

Vandal had never seen her so….distant. There was no flirting or teasing now.

“I told you, five days,” she said in the same agitated tone of voice.

“I recall,” he replied indifferently and he turned away. She was clearly not willing to talk to him and now he knew she was indeed working, he could let it go.

“It _is_ working,” Anna said suddenly.

He turned back to look at her. There was a strange sort of tightness in her face and the fatigue in her eyes had temporarily been replaced with some of that burning ambition of hers.

“I need to do some more…tests,” she said. “But it _is_ working. Two more days and I’ll be ready.”

“Did I say that I doubted you, princess?” Vandal replied amusedly. She was really on edge. It was almost funny. It wasn’t as if _her_ life and freedom hung in the balance here.

“You can come to me here at the end of your shift on Saturday,” she said determinedly. “I’ll be ready then.”

“Then I’ll be there,” he said, still looking at her.

She nodded and abruptly closed and locked the door to the lab again. Vandal walked back to the blood bank and spent his entire shift either thinking of Anna or Therese. In Anna’s case he wondered what she was doing up there in that lab and where Therese was concerned he was torn between guilt and triumph. She had no idea what was happening right now. That some girl was experimenting with her blood, manipulating it into something that could be used and controlled. Used and controlled…like he would no longer be.

Hope was a nasty thing. It set you up for disappointment, but Vandal felt entitled to hope. He wasn’t placing his faith in something soft and pure anyway. No, his hope was fixed on the ruthless ambitious of a woman who was as clever as she was resentful. Oh yes, he had faith in Anna Deering. Or at least in her abilities.

When he left in the morning he walked past the lab. The lights were still on. He didn’t bother to try the door and went home.

♦♦♦

Two more days passed and this time Vandal did not expect to hear from Anna. When he arrived for his Saturday night shift, however, he got a text from her. It read simply:

*We can keep our appointment.*

He felt a nervous thrill as he read it. Appointment. Yes. An appointment that would decide his life. Well, symbolically. Even if it went wrong it was very unlikely that it would kill him. The vampire blood was still strong in his veins. But if it _did_ work… he had to force the grin off his face and tried to think of other things. He still had an entire shift to get through.

When he knocked on the door of Anna’s lab early that morning, she opened it immediately. There were shadows under her eyes but her face was shining with anticipation and determination.

“Come in,” she said eagerly.

Vandal followed her, closing the door behind him. He glanced around. The lab was spotless. There wasn’t a trace of Anna’s working there before.

“Lock the door,” Anna instructed while she walked to a cupboard in the corner of the room. Vandal did as she told him and then walked towards her to inspect the small glass bottle she held up for him to see. It was filled with a thick, clear liquid.

“That’s it?” he asked incredulously.

“That’s it,” she said proudly. “I know it doesn’t seem like a lot of vitae from the amount of blood. But remember you can make do with a much smaller dose as I’ll be injecting it into your bloodstream directly.”

He hadn’t considered that. “So you want to inject that into my veins and that will be as good as drinking the Bitch’s blood,” he said dubiously.

“It will be better,” Anna said confidently. “Unless, you’re having second thoughts?” Her tone of voice was almost mocking.

Vandal grimaced at her. Like he wasn’t way beyond the point of no return already. “Go on then,” he ordered gruffly.

“Certainly,” Anna said with a bright smile and she turned away to get her equipment.

Vandal watched her take out a syringe, disinfectant and a pocket recorder. She turned it on.

“First injection, subject 1AGM,” she said.

He grimaced at her cool, detached tone of voice. She looked at him and said, in a different tone: “Vandal Cleaver.”

She put the recorder down next to him.

“Are you recording me or yourself?” he asked. She was making it a little too clear he was a goddamn experiment.

“Both,” she said. “Ready?”

He nodded.

“Give me your arm then,” she said.

He held out his arm. Anna carefully chose a spot and sterilized his skin. Then she filled the syringe with the vitae.

“This probably won’t be pleasant,” she informed him. “It’s a thick solution.”

“Get on with it,” Vandal said curtly. He wished she wouldn’t switch between her gentle and her professional persona so haphazardly, it was getting on his nerves.

Anna carefully stuck the syringe in his arm and slowly pushed the plunger. Vandal hissed between his teeth. Smoothly Anna took out the needle and disposed of it immediately. Vandal sat back in his chair and exhaled. His arm felt like it was glowing. It didn’t quite hurt, but it burned like hell.

“How do you feel?” Anna asked, giving him a watchful look.

He grunted. Was she really going to fucking interrogate him right now? The burning sensation was spreading. He was sure he could feel it coursing through his veins.

“Please tell me,” she said urgently.

Vandal closed his eyes. When he drank Therese’s blood there was an endless darkness in his head, but now there were spots of light flashing before his eyes.

“I _need_ to know,” Anna ordered him.

“Feels…hot,” he said, making an effort to shut her up. “Just like drinking blood only, the warmth spreads from my arm instead of my throat and stomach. Spreads faster too.”

“Hm,” Anna hummed. “Go on.”

“It’s-” He gasped and forgot what he was saying. The vitae had reached his heart. He gasped for breath and bent over. The triumphant burning was exploding through his body. This was better than adrenaline, better than _blood_. This was fucking amazing. He wasn’t aware that Anna was talking to him until she shook him by the shoulder.

“Talk to me!” she snapped. “Do you need a pain killer?”

“Fuck no,” he growled. Pain didn’t exist anymore. Or if it did it would never be able to touch him.

“Then tell me what’s happening,” she said in frustration.

He looked up at her and stared straight into her eyes. He didn’t know what he looked like, but he saw her look somewhat startled. “It’s _strength_ ,” he said emphatically. “Pure strength flowing through my body. Burning away any weakness or tiredness. It’s fucking invincibility. Feels _just_ like the real thing. Except…” He closed his eyes.

“Except what?” she prompted.

Vandal opened his eyes again and grinned. “Except _without_ that sickening, slavish devotion.”

A smile spread rapidly across Anna’s face. Her eyes were sparkling with triumph.

“I don’t feel _any_ weakness,” he said darkly. “Only heat giving strength to my body.” Eagerly he searched the corners of his mind. The voices were quiet, stunned, there was not one whisper in favour of Therese. There was only gorgeous, burning strength, cleansing his body with fire.

“What weakness do you normally feel?” Anna asked.

Her and her damn research questions. “A willingness to do anything for more,” he grunted. “Wanting to be close to… _her_. Bitch. _Needing_ to be close to her.”

“You don’t want more of this?” Anna asked interestedly, gesturing to the sealed vial.

Vandal considered this. “No,” he shook his head. “I don’t need more. Not now.”

There was another flash of triumph in Anna’s eyes. Vandal looked at her. His body was getting used to the heat and he no longer felt so out of control. He was more aware of his surroundings again and he was very aware of Anna right beside him. He felt like picking her up and pinning her down on the stainless steel counter. He felt like celebrating. He wanted to rip open her clothes and pull her hair free from that stupid bun. He wanted to use the strength he felt coursing through his veins. He didn’t. Instead he sat back in the chair and closed his eyes again. If he gave in to those impulses now, he might very well lose control completely and that _wasn’t_ going to happen.

Anna kept observing him closely. Sometimes she asked him a question and he answered her. After a while the glowing hot feeling in his body subsided. He was sorry for it, but somehow it felt natural.

“My heart rate has gone down again,” he informed Anna.

“Is the heat gone?” she asked. “There is a change in your complexion.”

“Yes,” he said, opening his eyes. “I feel like my sick little self again.”

She smiled. “And how does that feel?” she asked.

“Never very nice to come down from a high,” he said. “But I feel fine. Normal.”

“Completely normal?” she asked.

“Completely normal, _for me_ ,” he replied.

Anna nodded. She picked up the recorder. “End of session one,” she said and she turned the recorder off. Slowly she put it down on the counter again and took a deep breath. “ _Well_ ,” she said.

Vandal got to his feet and stretched his arms and legs. He felt _good_. He watched Anna put some things away. The urge to touch her had diminished, but it wasn’t gone.

“I must say,” she said, turning around. “That all seems really promising.” She gave him an excited smile. “Let’s just hope it stays that way,” she said.

“You’ll be the first to know if it doesn’t,” he said darkly.

The corners of her mouth twitched. “I should hope so,” she said. “Do tell me if you feel _anything_ out of the ordinary. Positive or negative. I’m overjoyed you respond to it this well, but I have no idea what might happen next. After all There-” He snarled at her and she corrected herself: “-the Queen Bitch’s blood is still in your system, I have no idea how long it will take for the clean vitae to replace it completely.”

“Then what have you been testing for the past week?” he sneered.

“Lots of things,” she replied coolly. “But as it turns out, most animals _die_ when you inject them with vampire blood.”

Vandal scoffed and grinned. “How many of them did you waste before coming to that conclusion?”

“Never you mind,” she replied. “Go home. Get some rest, or whatever you need right now.”

What he needed was something, or _someone_ , to play with. “I think I will,” he said with a dark smirk. “See you later, princess.”

“Keep me posted,” she said as he unlocked the door. “Call me, text me, come see me, whatever.”

He held up his hand and left without replying, slamming the door shut with a bang.

♦

Anna listened to Vandal’s footsteps retreat down the hallway and leaned against the wall, exhaling slowly. She supposed she couldn’t have asked for a better first trial. That had all gone _really_ well. Carefully she put away the syringe of tranquilizer she had had out of sight but within reach from the start. Thank God that hadn’t been necessary. Vandal had looked very aggressive and very _hungry_ at times, but he hadn’t as much as lifted a finger towards her. She wondered if that had taken him any effort or not. She was certain he had not told her half of what he had felt. It had been clear that her questions annoyed him and that he only answered her so she would shut up. Still, she had seen enough to know what to expect next time.

Suddenly feeling how tired she was, Anna tidied up her equipment. She took the bottle of vitae, checked if it was properly sealed and slipped it in her pocked. There was no way she was leaving that here. It didn’t need to be kept in cooling and she was not going to run the risk of anyone finding it by accident.

On the way home, sitting in the back of the cab, her thoughts ran wild. What if it worked? If Vandal really experienced no negative side effects from the vitae and was able to keep his strength and improved healing that meant she could use this as a medicine. It might be addictive, but so were most of the drugs doctors used regularly. His reaction to it had been rather extreme, however, it wouldn’t be easy to administer something like that secretly without attracting attention. Still, she had used a very high dose, to mirror the effects of drinking more than a pint of blood. With a sigh she leaned back in the seat and shook her head. Those were all later concerns, right now she needed some well-deserved rest.

As soon as she closed her front door behind her, she undid her hair and massaged her scalp. She hadn’t even noticed the headache coming on, but now it was very intrusive. For a moment she considered having a bath, she could really use one, but instead she just shrugged off her clothes and collapsed into bed. She was asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like this is a very full chapter with a lot happening all of a sudden, but it just turned out that way and didn’t want it to be any different. I am fully convinced by the way that Betram Tung knows about (or at least suspects) the whole Therese/Jeanette situation, but Vandal doesn’t know so he can’t really pick up on that.
> 
> According to Bloodlines lore, animals cannot become vampiric, but I can’t imagine that the blood would do nothing, if nothing else those poor things died from blood poisoning.
> 
> Anna is a lot harder to find songs for than Vandal, but I think Melanie Martinez's [ “Pacify Her”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZw0r6sOZjo&ab_channel=SabrinaBallah) fits rather well.
> 
> (I'm sorry for the eratic upload schedule, but family life is hard at the moment and I will upload when I remember to and when I have a quiet moment to do so.)


	9. Withdrawal

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Content warnings:** Self-inflicted harm, borderline domestic violence.

The following week was strange. Vandal didn’t feel any different, he had nothing to report to Anna. His strength, his reflexes, his ability to handle pain and heal, they all seemed completely unaltered. His state of mind was nothing out of the ordinary either. He didn’t feel the violent love for Therese pulsing through his veins that he usually felt after drinking, but he still worshipped Therese as much as he despised her. No, day after day passed uneventfully and not a single significant change.

Anna had changed though. _Her_ behaviour was decidedly different. She had, after him having taken the first dose of vitae, gone back to her playful behaviour, but she didn’t come on to him like she had done before. She teased and joked, touched him to get his attention, but no longer hinted at going home with him and never tried to kiss him. She did ask him a lot of questions though and Vandal was certain that whenever she had been to see him, she made notes. She was no less interested in him than before, it was just that now she was interested in him as an experiment. Then again, maybe that had always been the source of her interest. Vandal didn’t care. He didn’t care about anything. He was disappointed. No, he was angry. Angry that he felt no change. Angry that Therese decided to leave town for some stupid Malkavian gathering. Angry that Anna had stopped working nights and only ever visited at the beginning of his shift. He was angry that he was angry at all.

By the time Saturday had come around again, Vandal was in such a bad mood he decided to go get someone new for the chair tomorrow. He needed to hurt someone. That would make him feel better. But when tomorrow came he didn’t even feel like doing that. He just felt…dull. Empty. When it was time to go to the blood bank, he didn’t want to. He just wanted to sleep. None of it mattered anyway. Therese had come back last night and hadn’t even sent for him. Not even to replenish her supply of blood. She didn’t care. So why should he care? He might as well sleep…

♦

Vandal woke up in the middle of the night feeling sick. He was trembling all over and felt hot and cold at the same time. Sweat dripped down his face when he sat up. What was wrong with him? His mouth was dry and his hands were shaking. He wanted… _He wanted Therese. He **needed** Therese._ Before he knew what he was doing, he had gotten out of bed and was already halfway dressed. _He had to be with Therese. Taste her again. He needed to-_ Vandal forced himself to stand still and struck himself hard in the face. He cried out in pain.

He had felt like this once before. When Therese had been away on business and he hadn’t gotten his blood fix on time. But that time he had also felt terribly weak. His body had ached and he had felt so tired and sore. It wasn’t like that this time. He did feel weak, but not sore.

Vandal swore. He was having withdrawal symptoms. Psychological ones. His body was being supported by Anna’s formula, but Therese’s blood was ebbing away and with it her presence. So something _was_ changing. He’d be _free_ of her soon. The triumph he felt at that realization was strangled immediately by a wild and panicked desire. _He needed her. He missed her_. Vandal hit himself again, furious at his own thoughts. Nevertheless, he was almost out of the door and on his way to the Asylum before he managed to stop himself.

If he went to Therese, she would know what he had done. She’d kill him. Choked thoughts drowned out his own reason. _He could beg for forgiveness. He’d do anything to be with her. He had to taste her again. Feel her inside him again._ Vandal felt sick. He dug his fingernails deep into his arm and focussed on the pain. He would not go to Therese. He wouldn’t. He wanted to be free of the Bitch forever. He wanted her out of his veins. Out of his head. _He wanted her so badly. He needed her._ Going to Therese meant death. _Death was better than this._ Therese would find out about Anna and… Anna. For a moment the trembling stopped and then it came back. _Therese, Therese’s eyes in the dark_. No, Vandal thought gritting his teeth, think of Anna. Anything to supplant Therese in his mind. Anna’s eyes, Anna’s hair, Anna’s skin, Anna’s scent. His own thoughts snarled at him. _Why Anna? Why was she different? She used him just like Therese. Therese…_ No. Not Therese. Not Therese. Anyone but Therese. _Anna wouldn’t care_. Anna _had_ to care.

Vandal was in a bad way by the time he reached Anna’s apartment. Blindly he found the way to her door and slammed his fist against it until his hand ached. It seemed an age before he heard movement inside.

“Anna, let me in,” he demanded.

“Vandal?” he heard her shocked voice.

The door opened and he stumbled inside.

“Good God,” Anna gasped and she rushed forward to support him.

The moment she touched him Vandal shivered. _Those were the **wrong** hands_. He pushed her away and groaned.

“What’s wrong?” Anna asked, closing the front door hastily.

“I want Therese,” Vandal panted. “I need her.” He cursed loudly and struck himself in the face so violently that Anna rushed forward to try and stop him.

“Vandal stop,” she said urgently, grabbing at his hands. “It’s alright.”

He shook her off violently, but held still, breathing heavily and with his eyes half-closed. Nothing about this was right.

Anna pressed her fingers against the artery in his neck to feel his racing heartbeat. “Some withdrawal symptoms were to be expected,” she said soothingly. “I’ll get you something to drink.”

She withdrew her hand but as soon as she did he grabbed it and pulled her back.

“What do you want?” she asked, startled and concerned.

Vandal opened his eyes and looked at her with a feverish glow in his eyes. “ _I want Therese_ ,” he growled.

Her eyes were darting from his clammy face to his trembling limbs. The spasms, that had stopped for a moment, came back and Anna let out a breath. Suddenly she drew towards him. Vandal was still holding on to her right hand forcefully, but she made no attempt to break free and instead started stroking him with her left hand. “You can have whatever you want,” she cooed. “I’ll be your Therese.”

Vandal pushed her away with such violence that Anna stumbled into a side table and fell.

“Don’t you _dare_ compare yourself to her!” he spat. “You can _never_ be her! Fucking bitch…I _want_ her…I want her _out of my head_!”

Anna had gotten back to her feet and her eyes were flashing with anger. “You _ever_ do that again and I’ll make you regret it,” she threatened.

Vandal gave a scornful laugh. “There’s nothing you can do to me worse than this,” he cried, writhing in agony.

Anna walked up to him with a few long strides and pinned him against the nearest wall. She was nowhere near strong enough to control him, but Vandal was too busy fighting the tremors to fight her.

“Why are you here?” she demanded.

“What?” he growled.

“Why are you _here_?” she repeated.

He stared at her, his hair and face damp with sweat.

“Say my name,” she ordered.

“Wh-“

“ _Say my name_ ,” she repeated and she pressed her body against his. She hadn’t done that since he had brought her Therese’s blood.

Vandal felt the fabric of her nightgown against his damp skin. He could smell her. She was warm, not cold like Therese. _But Therese_ … “Therese,” he mumbled.

Anna grabbed his chin and roughly turned his face towards her and moved her hips against his. “ _Anna_ ,” she said forcefully.

“Anna,” he repeated, staring at her.

She smoothed his forehead with her cool hands and ran her fingers through his hair. “ _Anna_ ,” she said again.

“Anna,” he echoed.

She pressed her mouth against his and kissed him. Her tongue was warm and wet in his dry mouth. Her lips were soft and moved against his. She drew back and said: “Again.”

“Anna,” he said mindlessly.

She wrapped her arms around him and kissed his neck and throat. Vandal sighed and started to repeat her name over and over, pushing Therese further away with each time he said it:

“Anna… Anna… Anna…”

Anna took him by the hand and led him to her bedroom. He followed, dazed and docile. She took off his shoes and most of his clothes. She turned around with his clothes in her arms, but he pulled her back, so she dropped them on the floor and gently pushed him down onto the bed.

“No,” he muttered. “No sleep-” Therese would come for him if he slept. She’d find him in the dark of his dreams.

“Lie down,” Anna ordered.

He complied and she lay down next to him, pressing her body against his, stroking him. Vandal struggled to turn his head so he could look at her. “I hate her,” he said.

She kissed him.

“I fucking _hate her_ ,” he growled, starting to shake again.

Anna held him tighter and the shaking stopped.

He inhaled lungfuls of her scent and pulled at her nightgown. “Skin,” he muttered.

She pulled her nightgown over her head and pressed her naked torso against his. Vandal touched and smelled her skin. It was so soft. So warm. He wrapped his shaking arms around her and buried his face in her neck. Anna silently freed one of her arms and pulled her duvet over them both. Vandal’s head was swimming. It was full of Anna and Therese. He still wanted Therese, but he could feel Anna’s heartbeat and her arms were tight around him. She wouldn’t let him go. Not now. He didn’t want to hurt her like he did Therese. He didn’t hate her like he did Therese. He didn’t trust her, but he didn’t hate her.

“It’s going to be fine, Vandal,” Anna said. “It’s going to be okay.”

Vandal let out a strangled laugh. Her voice wasn’t gentle, it was determined. Anna was not accustomed to failure and if he was _not_ fine that would mean her experiment had failed. He was an _experiment_ , Vandal tried to remind himself. He was her experiment and she was his ticket to freedom. Freedom. He tried to hold on to that. But what he held onto instead was Anna and she hugged him tighter in response. Finally Vandal closed his eyes and let himself go limp in her arms, just breathing her scent in the darkness, until he slept.

♦

Anna’s arms ached from lying still and holding Vandal in an awkward position, but she didn’t move. He was finally asleep and she would not wake him. He lay in her arms like a child, too weak to even hold onto her anymore. This had very nearly gone completely wrong, she realized. He had been on his way to Therese. That would have been the end of them. The filthy parasite would have used him to find her and then gotten rid of them both. Or worse…Therese might have decided that she might be _useful_ to her. Anna felt her stomach churn, but she held it together. None of that had happened. Vandal had _not_ run to Therese. He had come to _her_ and she had managed him. For a moment she felt a flash of triumph. Her formula was _working_. All his symptoms had been purely psychosomatic. His spasms stopped when he was focussed and now, asleep in her arms, he no longer trembled and the cold sweats were gone. Silently a thought trickled down into her mind. He had come to her… Hurt and helpless and he had come to her. Firmly Anna waved those thoughts away. None of this had been part of the plan. She closed her eyes for a moment and sighed. This was cutting it far too close. How the hell had she not seen this coming? He must have lied to her about not feeling any difference. Or had this episode really come out of nowhere? She had left him to himself too much. She shouldn’t have done that. But it was for the best. Why? She hadn’t _liked_ leaving him to himself. Why should she do anything she didn’t like? Her shoulder began to cramp and she tried to move it without changing her position too much. This was terribly uncomfortable. She should have just sedated him. Anna stared up at the ceiling and tried to empty her mind. It wouldn’t be long until morning, she would bear it until then.

♦

Vandal was woken up by the sound of something falling over in an adjacent room. He sat up and looked around. He was lying in Anna’s bed in his socks and boxers. Daylight was coming through the closed curtains. He had slept here? Actually slept here? And Anna too? He could hear a shower running.

Vandal tried to remember last night. He couldn’t remember all of it. A lot of it was hazy. He sat on the edge of the bed. He felt normal now. Rather good actually. Perhaps Therese was finally out of his system. The thought alone made him glow with triumph. He’d be able to see her and not be her fucking slave. Of course he’d still have to play at being under her control, but it would finally not be true anymore.

He heard the shower turn off and after a short amount of shuffling noises Anna walked into the room wrapped in a towel and with another one wound round her head.

“Good morning,” she said when she saw him awake. “You look…better.”

He didn’t answer her, he was looking at her half-dried body. The towel didn’t cover her very well and she was not making an effort to make it do so. This was weird, he had never woken up with her around. Anna didn’t seem to mind it though.

“You’re not going to do the shy act?” he asked with a sneer.

“Why?” Anna said. “You’ve seen me.”

He got out of bed and saw that she had folded his clothes. How long had she been awake? “I thought you didn’t sleep with people you slept with,” he reminded her snarkily.

“Well, we didn’t sleep together last night,” she pointed out.

“What was last night then?” he snorted. “First aid?”

“In a way, yes,” she said archly.

“You should open your own hospital then,” he said.

She looked at him with a look of sarcastic amusement on her face. “You want breakfast?” she asked.

“If you’re serving,” he said. Now she mentioned it he felt how hungry he was.

Anna put on a robe and disappeared to the kitchen while he got dressed. When he sat down at the table she had made eggs and bacon with toast. They were a lot better than Vandal had expected.

“You didn’t strike me as the cooking type,” he said, holding out his plate for a second helping. He was starving.

“I’m not,” Anna said, pushing the pan towards him with a ‘serve yourself’-scoff. “But I’m good at breakfast."

He remembered her wolfing down pancakes drowning in syrup and snorted.

“ _Hey_ ,” Anna said with narrowed eyes. “I am a damn good cook when it comes to breakfast food. It’s the only meal I’m home for, usually.”

Vandal ate in silence while Anna talked. He listened to the sound of her voice, but not to what she was actually saying. Suddenly her chatter ceased and he looked up to find her studying him earnestly.

“What?” he asked.

“You said you never felt any different,” she said. “Did you lie?”

She didn’t sound hurt. Just suspicious, he thought. “I didn’t _lie_ , princess,” he said. “You think I wouldn’t have said something if I had felt this shit coming?”

“Do you feel different _now_?” she asked.

He sat back and grimaced at her expression, pushing his empty plate away. “You’re desperate for me to say yes, aren’t you?”

“No,” she said, narrowing her eyes. “I just need to _know_. This is _both_ our lives we are talking about here. Your literal life and my life’s work.”

Vandal made a nondescript humming sound. ‘Her life’s work’…

“So?” Anna prompted. “Do you feel…good?”

He did feel good. At least he thought so. When he thought of Therese there was still a thrill inside him, but it was muffled. He felt like getting on Anna’s nerves some more though, so he answered sarcastically: “Compared to last night I feel fucking _great_. Maybe you should make some notes on that.”

Anna looked annoyed. “If you’re not going to say anything helpful,” she said, walking around the table and prodding a finger against his chest. “You might as well shut your ghoul mouth.”

Vandal smirked, but before he could reply she suddenly grabbed a handful of his shirt and kissed him. He kissed back, opening his mouth eagerly and pulling her towards him until she was standing between his knees. Anna leaned into him some more and kissed him a little more forcefully before breaking away and giving him a look of reluctant satisfaction.

“What was it I needed to do with my ghoul mouth again?” Vandal asked with a grin.

“Shut up,” Anna hissed.

He laughed, grabbed her hips and made her sit down on his lap, facing him. He still sensed a little resistance in her, but that only lasted until he pulled the towel off her hair and twisted a hand into her wet locks. If she also had rules about sleeping with people _after_ she had slept with them, she was clearly willing to ignore them.

♦♦♦

Whatever had made Anna keep her distance before, it was over now. Her interrogations of him once more moved to the bedroom and that suited Vandal just fine. Therese had come back from her travels in a very good mood and it seemed nobody had bothered to report to her that the blood bank had been closed for a night. At least she didn’t mention it when she summoned him to deliver her usual supply of blood.

Vandal felt remarkably free of fear as he knocked on the door, but when he stepped inside he felt a knot tighten in his stomach.

“Ah, Vandal,” Therese said, getting to her feet.

Why did she say his name? She hardly ever used his name. “Exactly as you ordered, Miss Voerman,” he said, placing the carrier on her desk.

“Excellent,” she said. He had not seen her in this good a mood since before Jeanette had disappeared.

Therese looked at him with some sort of expectancy and Vandal wondered what she wanted. Because he didn’t know. He _wanted_ to know what she wanted. He even wanted to do it, if only to still the panic bubbling in his mind, but he just _didn’t know_. Had he not always known what she wanted? Just _known_?

“Did the gathering go well for you, ma’am?” he asked, his mouth dry.

Therese’s face shone with self-satisfaction and Vandal could breathe again.

“It certainly did,” she said smugly. “Hardly remarkable, considering.” She smiled. “There might well be a change in situation sometime soon. I shall certainly need to find someone to run the club for me, I will have more important matters to attend to.”

Vandal watched her with a fascination that might well have passed for his old admiration. He could feel something inside him focus on Therese with a thirst and hunger that he could not quite repress, but even this struggling longing was doubtful. He could not smell her like he used to do. When she looked at him the knot in his stomach tightened, but there was no frantic tug at his heart.

“This will not affect you, however,” Therese said. “Our arrangement will not change.”

“No, ma’am,” he simpered, bowing his head. She had no idea…

Therese looked him up and down and suddenly he felt small. “The blood bank is causing you no trouble?” she asked. “You have been running it on your own for quite a while now. Do I need to send you an assistant?”

Vandal stared at her. _How soft and gentle she was… Wanting to know if he was well. Asking him for his opinion. Trusting him..._ Trusting him to do her bidding. Expecting _her_ wishes to be _his_ wishes also. He blinked. “Thank you, Miss Voerman,” he breathed. “But it’s no trouble at all.”

“You are certain?” she pressed critically.

Vandal tensed up. She could _not_ force another person into his world right now. Some moron of a new-made ghoul sticking his nose in everything that was his. Someone he would have to control and deceive, and keep away from Anna. For a moment the vision of Anna working alongside him, _with him_ , for Therese, flashed in his mind again. But it was an old fantasy, already tainted and faded.

“Certain, ma’am,” he said hoarsely. “Pleasing you is no effort at all.”

She seemed satisfied with that and after a few more questions she dismissed him. “You may go now,” she said. “Come back in a couple of days to get your portion.”

“Yes, ma’am,” he said. “Shall I bring the equipment, like last time?”

“I thought we already agreed on that,” she said impatiently, waving him away.

“Yes, ma’am,” he bowed. “Forgive me.”

Slowly he left the room, feeling the tension in his stomach and shoulders lessen with every step. It still cost him some effort to breathe normally though and that was not any easier downstairs. The club was incredibly busy and the noise and heat pressed down on him. As he pushed through the crowd towards the door, he ran into the bartender. Vandal never really spoke to him, but it suddenly occurred to him that the man, big and rough as he was, looked unsteady. Vandal stopped for a moment and so did the bartender.

“Therese is happy, isn’t she?” he said and Vandal could hear the blind happiness that came from this fact, but also his uncertainty.

“Ecstatic,” he replied flatly.

The bartender had been Jeanette’s ghoul, but since he was still here he must be Therese’s now.

“Busy tonight,” Vandal remarked, just to have something to say.

“It’s always like this lately,” the bartender said, glancing round. “Good for business. But it sure is hard to run the club with the boss away so much.”

“Yeah,” Vandal said absentmindedly, staring into the bartender’s anxious eyes. “Well… Anything for the missus.”

“Yes,” he replied. “As long as she’s happy, right?” And he lumbered away, leaving Vandal staring at his tattooed shoulders.

Slowly his face contorted into a disgusted grimace. He didn’t even know the guy’s name. He never bothered to learn it, and why should he? He wasn’t a person, he was a thing. First he had belonged to Jeanette and now he belonged to Therese. He would adore and obey either, because he _had no choice_. Vandal wavered between disgust and anger, but as he hurried to the door there was a third feeling. Surprise. He could think and feel so clearly. He wasn’t even out of the door of the Asylum and his mind was all his own. Grinning widely Vandal walked back to the hospital, breathing in the cold night air. He had hardly felt a pang as he left Therese behind. His heart, that used to pound at the thought of going to see her, had barely skipped a beat. He really _was_ changing. It wouldn’t be long now… Soon he’d really be free. He could barely comprehend it. He’d be _free_. He would no longer have to answer to her, he would no longer be a slave. The Bitch wouldn’t be a Goddess to him anymore. As Vandal walked into the blood bank his mood sobered a little. Even if he did manage to get her out of his head and his veins, that didn’t mean he was free. Therese controlled Santa Monica. One false step and she’d catch on to what was happening. The thought of her incredulity and sense of utter betrayal made him smile for a moment. That would be a glorious sight to see… He wouldn’t be alive long enough to properly enjoy it though, he was sure of that.

Glumly he sat down at the counter at the blood bank. Wouldn’t it be nice... Wouldn’t it be _glorious_ if…if Therese just _died_. A thrill ran down his spine. He had thought about it before, but never had he been able to think of it without wanting to physically hurt himself in punishment. He could kill Therese. He could _kill_ her. Yes. Yes. Slit her wrists and throat. Stake her heart. Tear her cold, rotting heart from her… _her_ _beautiful, flawless, marble body_. Vandal closed his eyes. He couldn’t harm Therese. What use would it be anyway? If he got rid of Therese…how long would it take before some other bloodsucker tried to take her place? Would they kill him, or just _take_ him? The sensation of foreign blood being forced down his throat sprang forth vividly from his imagination and he retched. Fury burned in his chest. He would have liked to say it was all anger over the thought of being passed along like a mindless thing, but it was just as much a revolt at the possibility of belonging to anyone other than Therese. He was not free of her yet. Perhaps he would never be. Perhaps her blood had seeped into his tissue, into his very bones.

His phone beeped and distractedly Vandal dug it out of his pocket. It was a text from Anna:

*How did it go? X*

He didn’t answer right away, but stared at his phone, deep in thought. If he asked…would Anna help him get rid of Therese? Would she want to? He was pretty sure she would like to kill any vampire whose unlife she got the chance of ending. But would she be able to? She was only a human. Only a human with a very specific agenda. Perhaps she wouldn’t consider killing Therese worth her while. He shook his head to dispel the thoughts and texted back:

*Fine. Where are you?*

*Home. Needed rest,* she replied immediately.

*Meet me tomorrow,* he sent back.

*Only because you ask so nicely.*

He smirked.

♦♦♦

“The Bitch wants me back in two days for another _blood collection_ ,” Vandal told Anna the following day.

Anna perked up, but then looked thoughtful. “So soon?” she said.

“Ghouls need a fix every month or they start to weaken,” Vandal reminded her.

“Right,” Anna hummed.

“What are you scheming, princess?” Vandal asked with a grin.

“I was just wondering…” she mused. “Can T- the Bitch tell how your strength is waning and waxing?”

“When I haven’t drunk for a while you mean? No idea. We don’t exactly discuss my feelings,” he scoffed. “Why?”

“Well, if she _doesn’t_ notice I could just give you a shot of vitae _before_ you go to see her,” Anna said. “That might make it easier to bear, don’t you think?”

“Hm…” he mused. “It might. But better not risk it.” He grimaced. “It’d be a shame to be found out _now_.”

“Rather,” Anna agreed. She gave him a curious look. “So, how did it go? How was it to see her again?”

“Questions, questions,” Vandal shook his head and he leaned back in his chair.

“Come on…” Anna teased. “What kind of man doesn’t like to talk about himself?”

He let out a sharp laugh and started talking. With every description of his increased independence from Therese Anna grew more excited. She had to make an effort not to interrupt him. When he was done, she said, with a wide smile: “Excellent.”

“It’s a start,” Vandal grinned.

“I suppose we’ll find out how strong you’ve grown when you collect the Bitch’s blood again,” Anna said thoughtfully.

“Suppose we will,” he agreed.

♦

Much stronger, was his conclusion. Compared to the first time he had taken Therese’s blood this was effortless. The sight of her blood still affected him, but he did not think he had ever been this calm while he was near enough to touch her.

Therese’s face twitched when he changed one of the tubes and Vandal smirked. “I’m not hurting you, am I, Miss Voerman?” It slipped out before he could help himself.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Therese snapped.

Vandal bowed his head and shut up. He needed to watch his mouth. She’d be angry with him. _He could not make her angry with him!_ True, true. But only because he needed her compliance… _Yes, compliance._ He repressed a frantic smile. How quiet these new voices were, how easily persuadable.

“There we are, ma’am,” he said, putting away the last vial of blood. “All done.”

“Good,” Therese said approvingly. “That was faster than last time.”

He had been clumsy last time, Vandal thought, but not anymore. It was still a strange, exhilarating feeling, to be in charge of something concerning Therese. When he drank from her he was _not_ in control, quite the opposite. It was her ultimate control over him. Now, no matter how much he needed her permission, he was doing things to _her_ , instead of her doing things to him. He was almost out of the door, when Therese suddenly turned around at her desk.

“Vandal,” she said sharply.

To his mortification his body turned around on its own accord to face her. He glanced at her, fury burning inside of him. “Yes, ma’am?” he muttered.

“I have decided to temporarily lower my prices,” Therese informed him. “Ten percent seems reasonable to me. See to it that you adhere to this.”

He blinked. “Yes…of course…” he answered. Why the hell was she doing this? Because of politics? Did she want to be _liked_ all of a sudden?

“Good,” Therese said. “Now go.”

He turned around and left, reminding himself not to get overzealous. Even the part of him that _was_ able to think and act freely was not yet safe. He needed to practice being in control of his own mind again. He couldn’t go around saying whatever words jumped to his lips. Still, he had _never_ felt this normal after a visit to Therese. He was carrying a pint of her blood and he didn’t even _want_ to drink it. He still _thought_ about drinking it, but he didn’t want to. Grinning widely, he got out his phone and texted Anna:

*On my way back.*

*Meet me at the lab,* she replied.

The door to her lab was unlocked when he arrived and he went in straight away.

“Would it kill you to knock?” Anna asked, but she didn’t look really concerned.

Vandal handed her the case and glanced around. This time the lab wasn’t as pristine and tidy. She had some equipment laid on one of the counters and in a corner something stood covered under a sheet. He could hear scuttling and movement underneath.

“Mice?” he asked.

“Mice,” Anna confirmed, putting all the blood in the cooler.

Vandal moved towards what he now knew to be a cage, but Anna looked round with a frown.

“ _Don’t_ touch anything,” she said sternly.

“Tsk,” Vandal snorted. She was obsessive about her work, he respected that, but it was also a tad annoying. “Are you going to disappear off the face of the earth again while you’re working?” he asked, repressing a scornful smile.

“I have to keep the blood _here_ ,” Anna explained with narrowed eyes. “The vitae I can store safely at my house, so _yes_.  I’m willing to work some extra hours to ensure the safety of my research.”

“Hm,” Vandal hummed.

Anna closed the cooler and turned around. “You want your shot, now?” she asked.

“ _Please_ ,” he smirked. He felt a thrill of excitement, but couldn’t quite tell whether that was brought on by the thought of getting his fix or the idea of Anna giving it to him.

She smiled and walked to the cupboard. “You know, you could do this yourself,” Anna said while she took out the bottle of vitae. “I could just give you a dose or two to take home, now we know that it works and that it isn’t addictive.”

“Didn’t want to give it to me before because you were afraid I’d use it all at once and turn into a murderous monster?” he grinned.

“Something like that,” Anna said amusedly. She held the syringe out to him.

“You do it,” Vandal said. “I like a woman that knows how to use a needle.”

Anna laughed softly and filled the syringe with vitae. Vandal watched her intently as she worked and looked at her face rather than at the needle when she inserted it. He could read nothing on her face but concentration. When she pushed the plunger and he felt the vitae spreading through his arms he closed his eyes. He leaned back in his chair and breathed deeply. There was that ecstatic warmth, reminding him what he was capable of. Filling him with fire and determination. The vitae flowed through him, completing him. It belonged in his blood. It was meant to be in his body. Nothing in him fought or revolted, this wasn’t enslavement, this was perfection.

Vandal opened his eyes and looked into Anna’s face. She was standing over him, gazing earnestly at him. Impulsively he reached out to touch her, but she moved away from him as soon as her eyes met his. There was a snarl of dissatisfaction in the back of his mind, but he managed to repress it.

“You are a lot calmer than last time,” Anna observed. “Did it feel that way?”

“Less overwhelming, yeah,” he said. “But still fucking amazing. Forget your mice, you’ll make a fortune selling this to stupid kids.”

“If I felt like wasting it, I would,” Anna scoffed. She turned, glancing around at her equipment and Vandal felt the tension in her.

“I guess that’s my cue to leave,” he said, getting to his feet. He felt _fantastic_. “Hey,” he grinned, turning to her in the doorway. “All work and no play makes the princess a dull girl…”

“Mmm,” Anna smiled, eyes lighting up for a second. “Well, I’ll be working for two days straight at least, so you better think of some games to play on Monday.”

Vandal chuckled and left her to her work. What had she said about taking the vitae home? She had basically offered to give him some to use himself. That meant she’d probably be willing to give him some herself outside of the lab. Maybe then she’d be more open to letting him work off a little of the steam that stuff of hers filled him with. For now he would wait till Monday, though. She was lucky he was so damn patient.

♦♦♦

“What do those idiots at the clinic think you do all day, or night?” Vandal asked Anna on the way to his house that Monday.

“Oh, I do lots of stuff for the clinic,” Anna replied. “Doctor Roberts is doing some drug trials. I help with those. And I’m gathering data on blood-borne diseases and defects. They just don’t know I have plenty of time to spare to do my own work.”

Vandal chuckled.

“Yes, that’s the advantage of having bosses that can’t see inside your head,” Anna winked.

“Therese doesn’t know what the fuck I do at the clinic,” Vandal scoffed. “Doesn’t care either as long as I keep the red sauce flowing and the cash rolling in.”

Anna stared at him. She looked excited.

“Hm?” Vandal grunted.

“You said her name,” she said excitedly. “The Queen Bitch’s name! You _never_ say her name!”

Vandal gave her a strange look. He said her name a million times a day, sometimes with every breath he took. Just not out loud. Still…Anna was right, he hadn’t even noticed he had spoken it out loud. As if it didn’t matter. But Therese always mattered. Didn’t she?

“Huh,” he hummed thoughtfully.

Anna made a joyful sound and bounced up in her seat. “You don’t _care_ ,” she exclaimed. “You don’t! Tell me about Therese!”

No hiss at the back of his brain in response to the name. No sigh of devotion in his heart. Nothing but a vague memory and the taste of contempt.

Anna made a triumphant noise and moved in restless ecstasy. Suddenly she flung her arms around him and tried to kiss him.

“Get off me!” Vandal snapped, taking his foot off the gas. “Crazy woman. I’m _driving_.”

Anna let go and Vandal glared at her. She looked smug and her eyes positively shone.

“Do you want me to drive into a deserted alley or something?” he offered darkly, enjoying the spike of adrenaline now the scare was over.

“There’s no need for that,” Anna said coyly. “Just drive quickly.”

“I don’t know,” Vandal said, turning a corner. “You’d probably look pretty good squirming against a back alley wall…”

“No doubt,” Anna replied with a slight look of distaste. “But _not_ very compliant.”

“I did say _squirming_ ,” Vandal smirked.

She didn’t answer that and he chuckled. The mix of disapproval and excitement on her face whenever he said something inappropriate looked so good on her. When they arrived at his building, Anna was slow in getting out of the car. Vandal pulled her upstairs with impatient energy.

“Well,” Anna laughed when the door closed behind them. “Therese may be losing her hold over you, but _you_ haven’t lost your strength.”

“Was that a medical observation, Miss Deering?” Vandal growled, picking her up and putting her down on the nearest flat piece of furniture of an appropriate height.

“No,” Anna said, wrapping her legs around his waist. “That was a prayer of thanks.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, that very nearly went very wrong didn't it?
> 
> I know the bartender of the Asylum isn’t a confirmed ghoul in the game, but considering what a control freak Therese is I think he must be. He does have a name by the way, he introduces himself as “Big Cal”, but Vandal doesn’t care.
> 
> Another song for Vandal, [Haddonfield 15 Years Later](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTqdlQ8SL-c&ab_channel=EmCee14) , as sung by Jared Weiss.
> 
> This is one of my favourite chapters. I hope you guys liked it too!


	10. Of Mice and Men

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Content warnings:** Medical experiments on mice involving blood and needles, one graphic image of torture and death of rats. If you can’t stand that sort of stuff (I don’t blame you), there is a safe version of this chapter [here](http://archiveofourown.org/works/10889241/chapters/24200577).

As the weeks passed, a strange sort of normality returned to the rhythm of the days. Vampires still came to buy blood, Therese still required her regular deliveries and he still went to her for a blood fix every month. On the surface nothing seemed different. But _everything_ was different.

Vandal had never felt this good. Or if he had, he could no longer remember it. It had never occurred to him that Therese’s influence over him had reached beyond his adoration for her. He had simply been incapable of recognizing her blood in the whispers in his head when they did not speak of _her_. He had never been _normal_ , but before her he had been…stable, in control. Now he felt like that again. Like there were no voices in his head other than his own. Nothing or no one to tell him what to feel or what to do except for him. He hated what he hated and he did what he wanted to do.

He did not know what he wanted with Anna though. He brought her Therese’s blood and she gave him her vitae. Sometimes she told him about her experiments with it and she was eager to hear anything he had to say about it. About once a week she went home with him and had sex with him and then left for her own place without a care in the world. Very rarely he went over to hers and then _he_ left afterwards. Quickly, before she even had the chance to hint at him having to leave. When he thought about it there really wasn’t anything he would change about that, but it still felt _strange_. By now he thought more about Anna than Therese. It was like she had replaced her in his head. Only…this was different. He didn’t _need_ Anna. He wanted her.

The more he thought about her, the more curious he got. He wanted to see more of her. He particularly wanted to see her working. She never wanted to let him into her lab when she worked and whenever he asked about her work she tried not to answer, but he could tell she really wanted to talk about it. She was proud of her work and it clearly frustrated her not to be able to share it with anyone. Even so, it was not easy to make her talk about it. He had to pick his moments carefully, waiting for her to let her guard down.

♦

“How did your skin regrowth tests go?” Vandal asked nonchalantly.

He and Anna were sitting in the otherwise empty break room. It was around three in the morning and it was unusually quiet at the clinic. Anna glanced at Vandal and he saw she was pleased that he remembered exactly what she was working on. It had been a slow night at the blood bank, Vandal was bored and he had made up his mind that he’d convince Anna to show him her work tonight.

It wasn’t just that he was curious about her research, he wanted to see her _work_. By now he was fairly familiar with Anna’s different sides. She turned the various facets of her personality on and off with no effort at all. But behind each of them there was a little of that gorgeous, vicious darkness, smouldering in the deep. It was a part of her that she kept hidden, but it was not always as far away. It had almost escaped that night he made her talk about her past and he had been looking for it in her eyes ever since. When she was talking to her colleagues, making small talk or discussing work, it was hardly noticeable. When she was in her cool, professional persona it was equally far away. But sometimes when he coaxed her to talk about her past again, or teased her about her experiments, it came bubbling to the surface. And when she was screaming with pleasure in his bed it seemed almost ready to take her over completely. Vandal wanted to see more of _that_ , and he suspected that seeing her at work would give him the opportunity.

“So?” he prompted. “Don’t hold out on me, princess.”

“It went well enough,” she replied modestly.

“Yeah?” he hummed.

“Yes,” she said, excitement sneaking into her voice. “The vitae completely restored them, and so quickly too.” Her eyes were starting to gleam. “People think of injuries to the skin as shallow and easily healed, but once the wound covers a big enough area it starts to cost the body tremendous energy to repair it. Almost instantaneous regenerating of the skin is _incredible_.” Suddenly she realized what she was doing and abruptly shut her mouth.

Vandal grinned. “Come on, princess,” he coaxed. “You’re _aching_ to show me. Why don’t you?”

Anna gave him a strange look. “No…” she said slowly.

“Come on,” Vandal insisted. “I’ll keep my hands to myself.” He grinned at her. “I’ll keep them off you _and_ your work.”

She looked at him and he could almost feel her mind wavering. “Well,” she suddenly said. “Why not? You want to see, come up and see.”

Vandal made an effort to hide his triumphant smirk. “Lead the way then,” he said, getting to his feet.

“Now?” Anna asked, raising her eyebrows.

“No time like the present,” he smiled. Like he was going to give her the opportunity to change her mind. No, no. He wanted to see Anna playing with mice and needles and he wanted to see it _now_.

“I’m working on three groups at the moment,” Anna said, unlocking the door of her lab. “Skin, muscle tissue and organ damage.”

She locked the door behind them and Vandal inhaled the smell of wounds and disinfectant. Three cages, divided into small compartments, stood a little apart on the far counter against the wall. They were filled with mice. Some of them looked terrible and others in the glow of health.

“Skin, muscle, organs,” Anna pointed to the different cages, putting on her lab coat. “Here,” she held out a spare coat to Vandal.

He put it on and walked over to the counter to study the mice. He stared at them in quiet fascination. The dumb creatures did not even shy away from him. Not even the ones that seemed close to dying. The variety in their injuries was great. Vandal inspected them with the critical eye of a lover of the art of bodily harm. He recognized knife wounds, crushing injuries, chemical burns…

“Who gave them the injuries?” he asked, deeply fascinated.

“I did, of course,” Anna replied matter-of-factly, putting on her gloves.

Of course she did. Vandal did not really know why he had asked. Anna would never let anyone else near her research. It was just that he couldn’t see her do it. He just couldn’t imagine her dainty fingers picking up something so small and helpless and just _destroy_ it. He stared at the mice and suddenly behind every injury he saw Anna. Anna wielding a scalpel, Anna pouring acid, Anna… He swallowed and looked away.

Anna was talking again. Something about having to make sure a subject had enough nutrients to actually sustain the healing properties of the vitae. She moved through her lab deliberately and gracefully. This was truly her domain, she was completely at home here. Vandal watched her intently.

“Watch this,” she said, sitting down at the counter.

She filled a syringe with a very small dose of vitae and opened one of the cages. She grabbed one of the most heavily injured mice. It squeaked frantically as she held it in her gloved hand and Vandal wished she’d squeeze just a little harder. Anna seemed barely aware of his presence. Carefully she turned the mouse over. Its legs and stomach were gashed and the wounds started bleeding again as the mouse struggled. Expertly Anna inserted the needle into the mouse’s stomach and injected it with the vitae. The mouse spasmed and made a sound that sounded eerily like an actual scream. Suddenly it stopped struggling and Anna opened her hand a little. The mouse stood on her blood stained palm, nose twitching attentively and black eyes shining. It’s white coat was smooth and healthy again underneath the clotted blood. The wounds on its legs and stomach, although still pink, had closed completely. With a triumphant smile Anna put the mouse back into its pen and it immediately ran to its water bottle to drink.

Anna met Vandal’s eyes and smiled. He searched for something to say that didn’t involve him asking her to do that again but with less desire to _end_ suffering. It was interesting to see her work, but he had expected to see more pleasure in her than the calm contentment he was seeing now.

“It works exactly as you thought it would,” he said. No matter how disappointed part of him was, he _was_ impressed. How could he not be?

“Thank you,” Anna said smugly. “At least I _presume_ you meant that as a compliment.”

“You can take it however you want it, princess,” Vandal said, glancing over the many mice in various stages of suffering. “What are you doing with these if you already know your vitae works?” he asked.

“Experimenting with different doses,” she answered. “I want to know exactly how much vitae has what effect.”

“You’re testing that _now_?” he chuckled. “Does that make me your first test subject?” He was not as bothered by that as he could have been.

“Well, you were so eager,” Anna grinned. “But no. Of course I tried an equivalent dose on mice first. The last thing I wanted was to accidentally give you an overdose.”

“Is that even possible?” he asked.

“That’s what experiments are for,” Anna said. “I need to see how little vitae still has a desirable effect and how much vitae is too much. Either because it is unnecessary or because it is dangerous. Normally I’d just pump a few mice full of an extra high dose and see what it does, but this stuff is still in short supply and too valuable to waste.”

Vandal hummed thoughtfully. He had been thinking of other ways to get Anna her vampire blood. Not that he didn’t enjoy using Therese without her knowledge, but it was a slow process. It made him impatient. Short of kidnapping a vampire and strapping them to one of his chairs he couldn’t think of another way to get his hands on their blood though, and that was just too damn dangerous. Especially right under Therese’s nose.

“So far,” Anna said. “I have found out that small doses actually do quite a lot. And the vitae is not hard to dilute either, it’s pretty forgiving stuff. Very easy to handle.”

“How ironic,” Vandal smirked and she laughed.

She took off her bloody glove and changed it for a clean one.

Vandal stared at the collection of scurrying little bodies. “What do you do with them after you are done?” he asked.

“Gas them,” Anna replied.

“That’s a shame,” he said. Scientists, never knew how to have any proper fun.

“Hm? Are you such an animal lover?” she asked mockingly.

“Oh yeah…” he grinned at her. “I was great friends with the rats back at home… I used to spend hours in the basement, just to hear the traps snap shut and crack their spines in half. I’d sit and watch their blood trickle out of their little faces, oozing out just far enough to coagulate around the cheese… Like red roses on a fresh grave. What a waste of a death, using something as dull as gas.”

“Hardly anything to waste in an animal’s death,” Anna said amusedly. “They aren’t aware.”

“They feel pain,” Vandal said, glancing at the pitiful little bodies.

“Sure they do,” Anna said, with a dismissive shake of her head. “But they have no concept of either life or death, only instinct. What good is wielding death over something that doesn’t realize you control its life?”

 _There_. There it was. Glinting sharply in her eyes, taking possession of the curve of her mouth. It was dark, it was cruel and it was _dying_ to get its hands on the world. Vandal slanted his head and watched Anna with fascinated astonishment. _How_ , he thought, _how_ did she manage to pass for mundane and normal in the eyes of the world?

“I’ll move on to diseases soon,” Anna said, the darkness sinking into her again. “Blood-borne infections first I think.”

Vandal watched her return to her calm and clinical self with a dull ache in his heart. He could not understand how she could just turn off that vibrant, _brilliant_ side of her in favour of sweet little smiles and sensible calmness. And for what? To fit in with the sheep? With the _mice_? He knew the price of living. He knew the importance of hiding. But why should she hide it now? She couldn’t _want_ to be normal, surely? Anna knew her own superiority, it was the first thing that started to show when she was caught al little off guard. She looked down on absolutely everyone. Vandal thought of the look on her face when she had talked to him of her work, things that truly mattered to her… Would she do that if she also looked down on him?

♦♦♦

Anna bit her lip and stared at her notes without seeing them. Vandal was making her question herself in a very unpleasant way. Around him she did things she didn’t mean to do. Not things she didn’t _want_ to do, mind, but things she didn’t _mean_ to do nonetheless. At least, not when someone was around to see her do it… But it was more _fun_ if he was around to see her do it. She snarled at herself. Wants were all very well, but she needed to get her priorities straight. She was close to proving all her theories. She couldn’t allow herself to get distracted now. It was cute that Vandal wanted to know about her research, see her work, but it was a distraction. Involuntarily her memory called forth the look of fascinated respect that had been on Vandal’s face when he watched her inject the mice. People looked at her like that all the time, but…not like that. Not with so much understanding, not with so much _justification_. How could they? Nobody knew what she was really capable of. But even if they would know, they wouldn’t understand. They wouldn’t appreciate it. Vandal did. Anna caught herself smiling and hissed internally.

What was the matter with her? She was losing control of her situation. That suspicion had been dawning on her for a while now. Vandal was different now he was free from Therese. She never heard him mutter to himself anymore. His eyes rarely glazed over now and in everything he said and did there was something …deliberate. Something that not been there before. Anna liked it, but she knew she shouldn’t trust it. He was more in control, which meant that she wasn’t. She could no longer direct him as easily as before, her influence over him was sinking. Or…was that true? He wasn’t drawing away from her. Quite the contrary. Vandal seemed to want _more_ from her now than he had done before. She was no longer the one constantly carrying the conversation. No longer the one always instigating the contact… And she was so _bored_ without him. She sighed. It was such a damn waste. A guy like that in a place like this. Reluctantly she turned her attention to her notes again, but the frown that had crept onto her face stayed with her for the rest of the evening.

♦♦♦

The more he tried to find out about the side of Anna he found most attractive, the more puzzled Vandal was by the way she behaved. He could not understand how a contempt as strong as hers could so easily be hidden away. She was so universally _liked_. How the fuck did she do it? Just the thought of playing the kind of games Anna played to fool everyone around her made Vandal feel like he would lose his mind. All those damn people expecting something from you. Attention, help, sympathy, friendliness, patience. He’d kill himself before he reduced himself to that. Except Anna was not like him. Not really. Perhaps in some ways she was, but she still _liked_ people. Or if she didn’t she at least wanted to be among them. Yes, Anna enjoyed being among people. Vandal didn’t understand why, but she definitely did.

“I want to go out,” she said one evening at the clinic.

“Go out where,” Vandal grunted.

“Any place will do,” Anna said. “I just need a night _out_. I’ve been to the Confession a couple of times now, it’s getting old. There’s a bar a couple of streets over called The Last Round, I-”

Vandal snarled at her. “You keep away from there. That’s a bloodsuckers' den.”

“ _Everything_ here is full of the parasites,” Anna spat. “I’m sick of it. If I want to go there, I will.”

Vandal grabbed her by the arm and yanked her towards him. “The Last Round is the Anarch headquarters,” he said warningly. “The only mortals you’ll find there are ghouls and blood dolls.”

“Anarchs?” Anna said, shaking her head in irritation.

“You’re _kidding_ me,” Vandal snapped. How did she not know about this? “Never mind,” he growled. “All you need to know is to stay away from there if you want to keep that pretty little head of yours.”

Anna gave him a resentful look and pulled her arm free.

Now she was pissed at him. For fuck's sake. He forced a smile. “Alright, princess, sit down,” he said. “I’ll give you a lesson in the local politics.”

For a moment it looked like she was just going to leave, but then she sat down. Her curiosity was usually stronger than her other emotions.

“You know about the Camarilla, right?” Vandal said.

“Their pretend government,” Anna said sourly.

“More like a political sect,” Vandal grinned. “But that’s exactly what the Anarchs think of them.”

“They are anti-establishment?” she said, with equal distaste.

“Hm, and they used to call the shots here. LA’s supposed to be the Anarch Free State. Not a pretty sight when the Camarilla first moved in, oh no…”

“I thought there were only two flavours of parasite,” Anna said, still in a bad mood. “The Camarilla and the Sabbat.”

Vandal shook his head. “The Sabbat aren’t normal bloodsuckers,” he said. “The Camarilla and the Anarchs both kill them if they have the chance. But we weren’t talking about them. The Last Round is where the Anarch leaders of LA hang out to do their hero of the people act.”

“So the Camarilla believes in leadership by elders and the Anarchs want, what? A democracy?” Anna said mockingly.

“Something like that,” Vandal grinned. “But they mostly want to rip each other’s throats out.”

Anna sniffed. “And who does the Queen Bitch belong to?” she asked.

“Camarilla, of course,” he replied. “But she’ll work with anyone to get what she wants.” He smirked. “Remind you of anyone?”

Anna refused to answer that.

Vandal grinned. “Her sister sided with the Anarchs,” he said.

“Jeanette, right?” Anna said.

“Hm,” he grunted.

“What happened to her?” Anna asked. “ _Some_ people seem to really miss her.”

Vandal wondered who she had been talking to, but he didn’t ask. “Nobody knows except the Bitch herself,” he replied. “They couldn’t stand each other…”

“What was she like?” Anna asked, suddenly genuinely interested.

“Jeanette?” Vandal said, a little suspicious of where this was going. “ _Not_ like the Queen Bitch. More like the Whore Priestess.”

Anna was searching his face for some sort of emotion and he did not feel like showing any, so he changed the subject.

“The reason you need to stay away from the Last Round is because it’s the hole where Nines Rodriguez and Smiling Jack like to bury themselves. Stay _away_ from them. _Especially_ Jack.”

“Why?” Anna asked challengingly.

“You’re _human_ ,” Vandal snapped in exasperation. “Most of the idiots that come to my window are lowlifes, nobodies. You can hear them slithering as they come and go. You have never even looked the Bitch in her face, have you? Do you have any idea what a _real_ vampire can do to you?”

“I’m looking at it,” Anna replied snidely.

He repressed the stab of anger he felt and leaned towards her. “If you’d like to find out what it’s like to be drained of your blood and free will that can be arranged,” he hissed.

Anna stared back at him coldly, refusing to shrink back or even look scared, but he could hear her heartbeat quickening.

“You really think I would risk my life?” she bit back at him. “All the work I’ve done? I have no desire to end up like those girls at the clinic or _Beth_.” She spoke the name of her friend like it was a curse. “But every damn club in LA is either being run by or full of the filth. What makes these two so special you have to warn me about them especially and get your threatening ghoul act _all up in my face_.”

Vandal sat back. She was damn lucky it was only an act. With how stupid she was behaving she deserved a proper warning. A _proper_ grip around her throat. Something withheld him, however, and Anna was still looking at him, waiting for an answer.

He shifted uncomfortably. Nines was just a confrontational show-off. Dangerous because of his street smarts, but not too interested in anyone that wasn’t a threat to him. Jack was a different story. He unnerved Vandal, and that was saying something. The Brujah was continually laughing at something and Vandal always got the feeling the joke was at the expense of the entire world, including him.

“Nines is the leader of the Anarchs,” Vandal said finally. “Even the Queen Bitch doesn’t fuck with him. Hell, even her sister didn’t try _to_ fuck him.”

Anna’s mouth twitched.

“And Jack…” Vandal fixed his eyes on her. What could he say that would persuade Anna to stay away from him? Nobody ever talked about Jack. Not like he was someone important anyway. He hadn’t heard Therese mention him even once. But the few time he had come to the blood bank Vandal had _known_ he was dangerous. It had been one of the few things all his voices had agreed on…

“Alright, I get it,” Anna said suddenly. “No going to the Last Round.”

Vandal blinked confusedly and looked at her. He had zoned out for a second and whatever Anna had been able to read on his face, it had been enough to scare her. She certainly looked unsettled, but now he had pulled himself together she soon regained her composure and even pretended to go back to her former annoyed state.

“Well,” she sighed. “I guess that means I’ll go to the Confession again.” She got to her feet and gave him a meaningful look. “You know, I might not be so bored with it if I had some company…”

“No,” he said blankly.

“Fine,” Anna said, rolling her eyes.

She left without kisses or squeezes and Vandal watched her leave with dissatisfied feelings he had no intention of sorting out. Not for the first time he wondered how long they’d be able to last. How long they could carry on like this. How long until one of them slipped up and this whole thing came crashing down… Somehow he felt like he had at least bought them some time just now. Time for what? He didn’t know what to answer to that question. Time during which they were not _dead_ , he decided. Time during which Anna was not walking to her death because she was bored and stubborn. He couldn’t let that happen. Vandal looked up and suddenly caught his own expression in the glass of the window. He looked _concerned_. Not vexed, or anxious or even nervous. No, that was concern on his face. Genuine, fucking concern.

♦♦♦

It was funny, really. She ought to laugh at it. He actually thought he could tell her where to go and where to stay away from. Anna hesitated. He had been _worried_ about her. Had he? Or had he just been worried she’d be stupid enough to lead the parasites to his door? She scoffed contemptuously, but a moment later she was laughing again. _Men_. At some point they all got either anxious or controlling. The anxious ones were convenient, so easy to play it was laughable. The controlling ones were more interesting, but hardly more of a challenge. A giggle escaped her throat. She _should_ make Vandal come with her on her next outing. He would hate it and it would serve him right for trying to threaten her. And then she’d make him enjoy it and he would hate _that_ even more.

No. Anna cut her own thoughts short and her smile melted away instantly. _No_. She shouldn’t waste time pressing Vandal’s buttons. It didn’t matter. It was all background noise. This whole fucking town was full of it. She needed to keep her focus. Finish her research. Make use of Vandal while she could. Build up a supply of vitae and then leave. Find a place where the parasites didn’t control half of the local businesses. A place where the hunters and occult scholars were more organized. A place with a less stupid climate. …a place without him? Anna threw her head back scornfully, but she couldn’t help the dissatisfied pout on her lips. What she needed to do was focus on work. She would start experimenting on human patients tomorrow. Yes, she had enough data to be _almost_ certain it would work. That’s what she needed, some solid, tangible success. Something just for her.

♦♦♦

Vandal heard running steps coming down the hallway. He had just enough time to realize it was Anna before the door flew open and she rushed in, looking positively elated. She was in _raptures_.

“I gave the vitae to a patient in trauma recovery, Vandal!” she cried, before he could say a word. “And it _worked_ and there were _no_ side effects.”

He looked at her without giving a response. She didn’t need one. He couldn’t help grinning though. Raw, unadulterated happiness was radiating off her. He could actually _feel_ it in the air.

“I gave her the vitae instead of her dose of morphine,” Anna said excitedly. “There had been _so_ many complications during her operation. Her body should have given out days ago. But after I gave her the vitae she got _better_. I monitored her closely and she has been off all medications for a while now and there are _no_ withdrawal symptoms or cravings. Nothing!” She beamed at him. “Vandal do you realize what this _means?_ ” she said. “It means it’s _our_ turn. Now we can bleed the monsters for their life force instead of them bleeding _us_.”

Her eyes were sparkling and her face was flushed. There was something manic in her voice that Vandal liked above everything else. He had never seen her like this, all rash, impulsive enthusiasm.

“Give me a vampire,” Anna declared triumphantly. “And I’ll bleed them dry and cure cancer.”

She was laughing out loud now and Vandal chuckled darkly. “That sounds oddly murderous for a doctor,” he remarked, grinning.

“I’m not a doctor,” Anna said boldly. “I’m a scientist and I stand by my statement.”

Vandal looked at her mouth, curved into a smile full of grim determination and delight and suddenly he stepped towards her and pressed his lips against that smile. She struggled against him in her surprise. He tipped her head back and leaned her against the counter, kissing her forcefully. She moaned into the kiss and he held her a little closer. When he let go she gasped for air. He stepped away from her, enjoying her flustered expression.

“What was that for?” she said, slightly out of breath.

“For your triumph,” Vandal replied, standing back with a grin. She looked so damn happy.

She laughed. Her spirits only seemed to be rising. She started talking about kidney disease and blood transfusions and making history and he listened with growing amusement until she stopped and made an incoherent noise. It seemed words weren’t good enough for her delight and excitement.

“Haven’t you got anything to say?” she grinned widely. “Vandal, you helped me change _everything_. It’s going to be _glorious_!”

Vandal grabbed her, pulled her against him and kissed her again. She kissed back with a muffled, approving giggle and Vandal kissed her harder. God, she felt nearly electric. He tried to lift her onto the counter, but Anna resisted. He let go, slightly annoyed.

“I thought we were celebrating?” he said.

“I’m sorry,” she laughed. “But I’m not having sex with a co-worker in his office.”

“Oh…” he grinned darkly. “Worried about professionalism are we?” He really wanted her now and he wasn’t going to stop. Her happiness was intoxicating. He pulled her towards him again and pressed a kiss in her neck. “Like the nurses and doctors don’t go at it like wild animals in between shifts,” he mumbled in her ear.

“Of course they do,” Anna said, gently pushing him away again. “But I don’t.”

“Why not,” he said, leering at her.

“Because I don’t,” she repeated.

He gave her a frustrated look. Why the fuck did she have to be difficult _now_.

“What?” Anna said. “Are you going to make me, big bad ghoul?”

He snarled. “No,” he said. “Contrary to popular belief I don’t force myself on women.” He knew he had a rap sheet and knowing Anna she had probably managed to get her hands on the police report. That girl three years ago had been a mistake, she hadn’t been as stupid as she looked. It was his own fault really, for going after a local, but she had smelled so sweet…

“I didn’t think you would,” Anna said with a smile. “Not with _me_ anyway…”

He gave her a long stare. “Why do you sleep with me, but no one else in the hospital?” he asked suddenly. He thought he knew, but he wanted her to admit it. That it was not just because of convenience or some shallow attraction, but because she _knew_ that she was just as fucked up as he was.

“What kind of question is that,” Anna said, frowning slightly.

“The kind I want answered,” Vandal said. He had seen something flicker in her eyes, just for a second. It looked an awful lot like…guilt.

She pursed her lips, searching for an answer to fob him off with.

“You know what you want and you take it,” he said. “I can respect that. But why do you want this from _me_?” Just _say_ it, he thought. Tell me about the darkness. About the _longing_. She came to him to ramble about her work because she knew he’d understand. Because he’d _appreciate_ it. Like she appreciated _his_ work.

“Maybe I just like to mix business with pleasure,” Anna said evasively. She tried for a winning smile. “It’s certainly in my interest to keep you on my good side.”

“You don’t have to fuck me to get your vampire blood,” he said flatly. “I’ll give it to you regardless.” That was true, it stung, but it was. There was no way he was going back to drinking Therese’s disgusting blood. He needed Anna’s vitae. “And even if I wouldn’t, there’s no need for all these cosy late night _chats_ …”

“I know,” she agreed.

“But?” he said. He was not going to give this up. He was _certain_ it was not just him needing her. No, she wouldn’t spend quite so much time with him. Wouldn’t let him get away with so much, if she didn’t need something from _him_ in return.

“But you _interest_ me Vandal,” Anna said with a sigh. She threw up her hands. “You’re the only interesting thing _in_ this damn place. Do you have any idea how hard it is for me to find someone I want to screw _and_ talk to afterwards? I spend time with you because I _want_ to and because I would have gone fucking _insane_ by now if I didn’t.” She took a deep breath and gave him the disgruntled look she always gave him when he managed to make her say more than she meant to. “There,” she said. “Happy?”

No, not by far, but it was enough for now. “Come home with me,” he said.

“What, now?” Anna said, taken by surprise. “Aren’t you in the middle of your shift?”

“Fuck this place,” he said. “The hospital supply is stocked up and no one ever comes to the window but filthy bloodsuckers. They can starve for a night.”

Anna gave him a strange look and then she laughed. “Okay,” she said, her irritation suddenly dissolving into playfulness again. “Does that mean we get to celebrate properly after all?”

“In any way you want,” he promised darkly.

♦♦♦

 _Screw it_. She’d be stuck in Santa Monica for months to come and she _refused_ to stay away from the only person that made this place bearable.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The animal cruelty was going to be more graphic, but I nearly made myself sick writing that so that was a no. Also: finally a proper mention for the Anarchs. Forgive me Damsel for leaving your badassery out of this story, but Vandal still tends to underestimate women (go figure).
> 
> Now, if you are a person with a very visual imagination, do not feel obligated in any way to look at this, but I’ve been looking around and if Secrets in the Blood was a movie I know which actors I’d cast to play Vandal and Anna:
> 
> <https://mysunfreckle.tumblr.com/post/160581880396/face-claim-for-vandal-cleaver>  
> <https://mysunfreckle.tumblr.com/post/160581879316/face-claim-for-anna-deering>
> 
> Those are links to my tumblr by the way and you are more than welcome to send me a message/ask anon or not :)
> 
> Oh! And a shout-out to the guest who left kudo's!


	11. Trust or Terror

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Content warnings:** Violence, more graphic sexual content than before (with a little bit of dub-con.)

The sudden definite success of Anna’s research made Vandal think very seriously on how this was going to develop. ‘Give me a vampire and I’ll cure cancer,’ she had said. Was that what she intended to do? Kidnap a vampire? That was a terrible idea. Vandal _did_ want her to succeed. He didn’t give a toss about saving people, but the idea of bleeding vampires dry to harvest the life force they had stolen from humanity for centuries appealed to him as much as it did to Anna. What he didn’t want was for Anna to do something… Something what? Something dangerous? It was a little late for that. No, he just didn’t want her to fuck his life up even further. What did she even want with her vitae once she had proved all her theories? She only ever talked to him about what she was doing right _now_ , or maybe what she planned to do tomorrow, none of her plans ever sounded long term. Perhaps she didn’t have any. Vandal shook his head. Not likely. Not for Anna. No, she definitely had plans and he would have to find out what they were _before_ she started putting them into action.

♦

“Are you planning on sharing your research with anyone?” Vandal asked cautiously, the next time she was in a talkative mood, sitting on his bed. “Could be very dangerous.”

Anna smiled. “Don’t worry, I won’t be publishing any papers on it if that’s what you mean. I’m not interested in fame.”

“No,” Vandal said. “But if you want to-” he rolled his eyes “- _help_ people. You’re going to have to start working on a larger scale.”

“Hm…” Anna nodded. “Well, I do have some ideas about that. I’m pretty sure that If I demonstrate what my vitae can do to the Society of Leopold they’ll be pretty eager to deliver more blood to me. I don’t want to work _for_ the hunters again, but I have no problem in working _with_ them. I don’t think it’ll take much more than a few bible verses and curing some of their injured ‘soldiers’ to get them on board. I wouldn’t want to do that before I have more data, however. And a significant stock of vitae.”

“My, my, you _have_ through about this,” Vandal hummed, covering up his dissatisfaction.

“Of course,” Anna smirked. “The LA chapter seems to be a pretty sorry bunch, but not all of them are like that. Back in Philadelphia and New York they were a lot more organized.”

 _That_ sounded like she was planning to leave… Vandal pushed at the feelings surrounding that thought and gave her a pensive look. The hunters he had come into contact with had all been rather delusional and that meant something coming from him. Out of the handful he suspected of guessing what he was, most of them hadn’t seen him as enough of a threat to bother him. Two or three had ended up in his draining chair after confronting him, or in one case that idiot Phil, with their ghoulish nature. Vandal had always taken pleasure in seeing hunters appear in Santa Monica. It meant someone was going to die. Usually the hunters themselves, but sometimes even some vampires. In any case, it was interesting. Still, amusement aside, as far as he was concerned they were volatile and unreliable.

“You think they’ll accept your science?” he sneered. “They might burn you as a witch.”

“You underestimate me,” Anna said with twinkling eyes. “I’m quite well versed in religious babble and I look _very_ good in a white dress with my hair down in ringlets.”

Vandal snorted.

“All people are susceptible to symbolism,” Anna smiled slyly. “The deeply religious just make it easier to figure out which symbolism.”

“Is that how you got in last time?” Vandal sneered. “By putting on a little angel act?”

Anna obviously enjoyed the fact that he didn’t like thinking about her with the hunters and said carelessly: “Angel, Virgin Mary, Mary Magdalen, I do not care how they see me as long as it makes them willing to help me.”

Vandal frowned. He didn’t like it. The thought of Anna clad in spotless white, smiling in the sunlight with a cross sparkling around her neck made him sick.

“Or maybe…” Anna said, coming to sit closer beside him. “Maybe I can’t be an angel anymore… Maybe they’d smell your scent on me…” She gave Vandal a teasing smile. “Perhaps I’ll try a different approach,” she said softly. She reached out and gently tucked a strand of Vandal’s hair behind his ear. “Perhaps I’ll tell them God has shown me a way to turn the devil’s curse into a divine gift… A way to heal their wounds, cure their sick…a way to make them stronger. Strong enough to fight and vanquish all their foes. And is it not their duty to accept this gift that God has deigned to bestow on them?”

Vandal listened to the sweetness of her words and how incompatible they were with the wicked glint in her eyes. There seemed to be no force or authority in her, only gentle manipulation. Sly and sweet.

“And I’ll tell them that I can give it to them,” she smiled. “If they‘ll only bring me the blood of the demons. The blood of the demons in exchange for the blessing of God. Is that not what they have always dreamed of? Oh, a few of them will doubtfully speak of the corruption of God’s creation and the hubris of man, but most of them will believe me. They’ll be _dying_ to believe me.”

Vandal didn’t doubt it. “You’re enjoying this already, aren’t you?” he said sourly.

Anna smiled sweetly at him.

“Tell me,” Vandal said seriously. “If you take such pleasure in manipulating and controlling the morons around us, why bother with helping them?” He really didn’t understand.

Anna looked thoughtful, but made no answer. She seemed to be thinking earnestly about it.

“If it’s control you want,” he grinned. “In all its dark glory, you should be dispensing terror, not mercy.”

Anna gave him an amused smile. “Tell me about terror then,” she invited.

Vandal leaned back and stretched out on the bed, staring at the ceiling with a far-off grin on his face. Where to begin? Anna came to lie beside him, close enough to make their shoulders touch.

“There is something so intimate about pain,” Vandal observed. “When you hurt someone, at first they’re scared of you, but that isn’t terror. They‘ll try to fight you, flee or bargain…” Vandal felt Anna’s breath on his cheek, but didn’t look at her. He continued: “When the pain doesn’t stop…when they cannot get away from you no matter what they try, then the terror starts to come. It comes in slowly, trickles in and takes them over. It freezes them in place until they are completely under your control, until they cannot even consider resisting you anymore. All there is, is you and their terror, locked together…forever…” He grinned. “Well, forever for them, anyway.”

While he was talking Anna had taken one of his hands in hers and was playing absentmindedly with his fingers. He only realized it now as he turned his head to see her reaction and he wondered how it was possible that his body at least was by now so used to Anna’s presence that he hadn’t even registered that she was touching him.

“And that’s the control of terror?” she hummed.

“In all its twisted perfection,” Vandal replied. He watched Anna as she brought his hand to her lips and lightly kissed his fingertips. He wondered what she saw in her mind while she kissed those hands. Did she see them grabbing at her hair, slipping under her skirt? Or could she imagine them eagerly closing around the cool steel of a needle or knife, stained red with callously spilled blood. Would she still kiss them if they _were_?

Anna let go of his hand, letting him retract it. “I don’t want people to fear me,” she said. “I want them to trust me.”

“ _Trust_ ,” Vandal scoffed, rolling onto his side. He propped up his head on his arm and looked scornfully down on her.

“You’re wrong about terror,” she said, fixing her eyes on his. “ _Trust_ is where the ultimate control lies. What you describe is coercion.” She smiled. “I can see why you like it,” she said. “It’s…wild and passionate. You confront them in their fear and they struggle and fight you, despise you, deny you, until finally they submit to you in their terror.”

“Exactly,” Vandal smiled. It was strange to hear her express thoughts he had always been convinced could only exist inside his own head, but he delighted in it. She had talked just a little faster and her eyes had seemed just a little brighter for a moment. Whatever she was trying to prove, she felt the same excitement he did. At least a little.

“But that submission-” she said, quietly again. “-is so much purer when it comes from trust. Even if it seems less passionate.”

Vandal raised an eyebrow. She was calm. She was smiling. But he could see the now familiar darkness in her smile.

“You can’t force people to accept help like you can force pain on them,” Anna explained. “They have to _want_ your help. Welcome you into their lives…” Anna’s eyes became unfocussed and Vandal watched a dreamy expression cloud her face. “In that moment when they accept your help…they surrender completely to you. They _trust_ you, they have no choice. They give themselves to you, render themselves completely vulnerable and all for the hope of help…all because they trust in your mercy.” Anna fixed her eyes on Vandal’s again and there was a strong shine in them that was painfully beautiful to him. “You don’t trust me,” she said softly. “You don’t trust anyone… And yet you’ll let me put a needle to your skin. And why? Simply because you _want_ me to help you. I could have injected you with cyanide, I could have done God knows what to you. But you – even you –  _trusted_ me not to. That is what helping people is. Knowing you hold their life in your hands and all because they willingly gave it to you.”

Vandal made no reply. He was staring at her, studying the glint of madness in her eyes and trying to subdue the deeply uncomfortable feelings her words were instilling in him.

“Admit it,” Anna said dreamily. “You may not trust me now, but you trust me every time you walk into my lab.”

Vandal avoided looking into her eyes, he fixed his gaze on her gently rising and falling chest.

“Don’t be like that,” Anna laughed softly. “I have to trust you a lot more than you trust me.”

He looked at her and she smiled.

“Look at you now, leaning over me with that scowl on your handsome face. You could strangle me if you wanted to…”

Her eyes were still fixed on his and she smiled intoxicatingly. He had never seen her like this.

“You think it never crossed my mind?” she whispered. “When you pin me against a wall…or when you pick me up like I weigh nothing at all. The first time you made me struggle against your grip as you held me down I thought: he could kill me now…he could do whatever he wanted to me…”

Vandal swallowed. He didn’t know if Anna was saying these things because she really meant them or just to turn him on. Frankly he didn’t care. “I wouldn’t strangle you,” he growled. “That would be a waste.”

“Of my life? “Anna asked with a teasing breathiness to her voice. “Or my death.”

“Both,” Vandal grunted and he shut Anna’s mouth with a hungry kiss.

As she squirmed gleefully beneath him, Vandal repeated her words about trust in his head and wondered if this was why she never slept beside him and he wondered if that time he had spent the night she had even slept at all…

After Anna had left, Vandal lay staring at the ceiling for a long time. _Trust_ … Anna had told him a lot of interesting things today, but none of it was as important as what she had said about trust. She hadn’t even tried to swallow her words. She had just let that dark brilliancy take hold of her and had just _told_ him. Even afterwards she hadn’t seemed ashamed or vexed about it. Not this time. Vandal thought of the victims struggling in his chairs, of the rats dying in their traps. It was all the same thing, really. He and Anna really did understand each other and with good reason. It was just that Anna got her kick out of deciding people got to _live_ , while he took pleasure in deciding they would die.

Weeks passed and Vandal only spent more time with Anna, especially at work. Some of their colleagues had actually dared to joke to him about it, but he had shut that down immediately. As long as he did his job it was nobody’s damn business how he spent his time. Admittedly, he was not giving his work the same kind of attention he usually did. Perhaps his mind did run on Anna a little too much. He should take care not to get sloppy…

♦♦♦

Therese turned up her nose when he entered. Vandal watched her, his head bent. It was still strange to look at her without feeling the yearning for her coursing through his veins. He felt nothing but contempt as he looked at her. Now, without the addiction to her clouding his mind, she did not look beautiful to him anymore. She simply looked dead. He would have enjoyed being able to look at her and genuinely hating the sight of her, had it not been for the fact that he couldn’t show it without endangering his life.

“You smell vile,” Therese snapped.

Vandal kept his head down and placed the delivery of blood packs on her desk. Therese was staring at him with obvious disgust, her nostrils flaring as she took in his scent. He saw a flicker of what he imaged to be sorrow on her face, but it was instantly replaced with anger.

“You reek of _disgusting activities_ ,” she hissed. “I can smell the…lewdness on your skin.”

It was sheer luck that he managed not to smirk. He hadn’t bothered to change his sheets this time after Anna had come over. He liked to keep her scent around. Had he forgotten to shower today?

Therese looked furious. “ _Look at me when I speak to you_ ,” she hissed and he obeyed.

Her eyes bored into his and Vandal fought the urge to let her know that she was doing nothing to him. That he felt _nothing_ for her. No loyalty. No desire. No desire other than the one to spit in her face.

“See to it that you keep your kineish weaknesses _to yourself_ , from now on,” she ordered coldly. “Now _get_ _out_ of my sight and do _not_ let me smell this on you again.”

Vandal bowed and retreated out of the room. He heard the rushing of his blood in his ears. As soon as he was out of Therese’s line of sight a grin crept on his face. It curled around his lips in a wicked smile and stayed there. He moved through the club without seeing or hearing a thing. While walking he took out his phone and called Anna’s number.

“Hi?” she said, sounding surprised. “Vandal?”

“Where are you?” he asked urgently.

“Still at work,” Anna said. “Why? What’s happened?”

“Office or lab?” he demanded.

“Office,” she replied, sounding alarmed. “Vandal, what-”

“I’ve just been to see the Bitch,” Vandal said, his voice dripping with dark glee. “Don’t move.”

“Okay,” Anna said concernedly. “But-”

Vandal hung up without letting her finish, nearly running through the alley and into the hospital. He didn’t go back to the blood bank, he went straight up to Anna’s office. Even in the middle of the night the clinic was busy, but there was hardly anyone on the research floor where Anna worked. When he burst into her office she got up from her chair with a concerned look on her face.

“Vandal!” she said sharply. “What happened?”

“Therese doesn’t like you,” Vandal grinned, closing and locking the door behind him.

“What?” Anna asked, her eyes darting to the door and then back to him.

Vandal turned around and walked towards her with a dark smirk plastered onto his face, making her back away until she bumped into her desk. He laughed out loud at her expression. She looked genuinely nervous, it was adorable.

“She doesn’t like to smell you on me,” he chuckled, grabbing Anna by the waist. With one firm movement he lifted her up and placed her roughly on her desk.

“What are y-”

Vandal shut her up by kissing her hard on her mouth. He felt her move towards him in surprise and he kissed her even more roughly. She gave in and kissed back. Eagerly he moved his hands from her face to her breasts and started undoing the buttons of her blouse. Anna moaned into his mouth like she wanted to say something, but he wouldn’t let her. His patience with the fiddly buttons ran out and he yanked at her blouse, tearing it open. The fabric creaked painfully and Anna made a protesting cry, muffled by Vandal’s tongue. He ignored her and she kissed him back even harder, until he worked her legs apart and slipped a hand under her skirt.

“Vandal,” she panted, breaking away. “Stop it…”

“No,” he said, sliding the hand up her thigh and between her legs with one smooth motion. “I’m going to celebrate never having to do what the Bitch tells me ever again.” He chuckled. “And _you_ are exactly what she doesn’t want me to do.”

“Not here,” she protested.

“Yes, here,” he said darkly. He looked into her face with a maniacal grin. “You have no idea how this feels… All this time I’ve been free from her, but there was nothing I could really do with it. I’m still supposed to do her bidding and pretend to be hers. But I know this would _disgust_ Therese and that’s exactly why I’m going to do it.”

“You can do whatever you want to me,” Anna cooed. “Just take me home.”

“Do I look like I have the patience for that?” Vandal growled. He rubbed Anna through the fabric of her panties and she bit back a moan. “Don’t tell me you’re not into this because you’re soaking wet,” he smirked.

Anna looked angry, but not angry enough. She _did_ want this and he was going to _make_ her admit it.

“Now,” he growled. “I’m either going to make you scream or I’m going to make you bite down on my neck to keep quiet like the little freak you are. I don’t care which. Now stop pretending you don’t want this and _let me fuck you_.”

“Take your hands _off_ me and take a fucking step back and maybe I’ll consider it,” Anna snapped.

Vandal’s face changed. Her voice was cold. He stepped back, releasing his grip and letting his hands slide off her. Anna gave him an icy stare, hopped off the desk and deliberately turned her back on him. Vandal snarled inwardly, but he didn’t move. She wasn’t playing, she was angry.

“You pull a lot of crap, Vandal,” Anna said, straightening the papers he had messed up by putting her on the desk and laying them aside. “And I am quite prepared to admit that I am into _all_ of it.” She turned around to face him and her eyes seemed almost black. “But make no mistake. Whatever you do to me is because I _let_ you. You forget about that again and _I am gone_.”

He stared at her and a vague, muddled echo seemed to wake up in his memory. _‘You ever do that again and I’ll make you regret it.’_

“Is that clear?” Anna hissed.

He didn’t make a sound, didn’t even nod, he just looked at her.

“Good,” Anna said and she took off her shoes.

Vandal blinked. Was she...?

“Now,” she continued, bending over and slipping off her panties. “Where were we?”

“What?” Vandal grinned, unbuckling his belt. “You consider that appropriate foreplay, princess?”

“More appropriate than yours,” she retorted, walking towards him. There was still a violent glint in her eye.

Vandal raked his fingers up her legs, taking her skirt up with them. “Would you like to submit in writing what you’d _allow_ me to do to you?” he grinned mockingly. Now it was clear he would still get his way he had no desire to pacify her. He _liked_ her angry.

“Do you _need_ things to be put in writing for you to understand them?” she hissed, pulling on the waistband of his jeans.

There was a flicker of strain on his face as he repressed the urge to take advantage of that movement, but he didn’t. Instead he smiled with mock concern and said: “I’m just making sure I don’t do anything too _rough_ , since you’ve decided to be such a prudent young lady now…”

She snarled at him.

His smile almost devolved into a grin, but he held it. “I mean…” he said, sinking his voice. “I’d hate to be disrespectful…”

Anger sparked in Anna’s eyes. “Vandal,” she said darkly. “If you’re not fucking me against that wall as hard as you can by the time I finish this sentence, I will see how far up I can get my legs and kick you in your filthy, smirking fa-”

Vandal yanked her towards him and picked her up. She clamped her legs and arms around him and he spun them round, almost slamming her into the opposite wall.

“There’s my depraved little princess,” he growled.

“Shut your face and do your job,” she hissed.

He let out a growling laugh and thrust inside her as hard as he could. Anna twisted her fingers into his hair and he groaned with pleasure. The image of Therese’s disgusted face formed in his mind and laughed madly. He felt Anna’s nails on his back and moved inside her a little deeper, taking more time to pull back.

“Stop fucking thinking about _her_ ,” Anna spat.

“Who, princess?” Vandal chuckled and he pushed her hard enough against the wall to temporarily force the breath from her body. She tightened her legs and dug her fingers into the muscles around his spine. Vandal growled with pleasure. Anna was still pissed at him and her revenge was delicious. He almost screamed when she sank her teeth into his shoulder.

♦

When they were both once again capable of coherent speech and thought, they were lying on the floor behind Anna’s desk.

“You think that was sufficient to piss off Therese?” Anna said sarcastically after a while.

“Name doesn’t ring a bell,” Vandal grinned. “Is she someone important?”

Anna scoffed.

Vandal sat up and smirked at her. “I should piss _you_ off more often.”

Another scoff.

“Come on,” he laughed. “That must have been fucking therapeutic for you. Telling me off only to then let me take you like that… Being _yourself_ like that.”

“I’m always myself,” she said pointedly.

He caught her and turned her face towards him. “Fine, but you’re the only one that knows it. You’re too good of an actress, too good of a liar, for me to have a clue who you really want to be…” He grinned. He knew what _he_ wanted her to be. “But when you’re being fucked and fucking me back like that…I know _exactly_ who you are, and what you are and what you want. You said you’re incapable of faking attraction, princess, I think _this_ is the _only_ thing you’re incapable of faking.” He laughed. “You couldn’t fake an orgasm to spare the feelings of Jesus Christ himself. _That_ just now, that was _you_ and you’re fucking glorious and I bring that out in you and you _love_ it. Admit it.”

Anna gave him an intense look. “Fine,” she said. “You’re a damn good lay.”

Vandal chuckled and got to his feet. He watched Anna fix her outfit. She looked neat and presentable again, but he could see the frayed edges. _Gorgeous_.

“If your ego wasn’t already healthy enough I’d tell you you were the best I ever had,” Anna said airily.

He looked at her. “Likewise,” he said matter-of-factly.

♦♦♦

Amusement. Lust. Anger. Happiness. They were starting to blur together in Anna’s mind. She kept telling herself it would be the last time. The last time she’d tell him things about herself just to see the look in his eyes. The last time she’d go tell him about her research to hear his fascinated questions. The last time…

“Come to the Confession with me.” She shouldn’t, she shouldn’t, she _didn’t care_.

“No,” Vandal replied flatly. He was refusing to look at her.

Anna was sitting perched up on one of the counters of the blood bank and let her legs dangle playfully. “I showed you my lab,” she teased. “And you come nosing around there all the time now. I never asked you to return the favour. Now I am: go out with me.”

“No,” he repeated, but he gave her a sideways glance this time.

If he didn’t want her to bother him, he shouldn’t make it so much fun. “I’d wear something nice…” Anna coaxed. “If you’re nice about it, I might even let you pick my outfit for me.”

He gave her a sarcastic look, but she saw the flicker in his eyes. She was winning.

“It’s really irresponsible of you, making me go out on my own all the time,” she complained. “ _Anyone_ might follow me home.”

“I doubt any of them would dare,” Vandal smirked.

“Alright,” Anna said carelessly. “ _I_ might follow anyone home.”

The corners of Vandal’s mouth twitched. “To do what, princess?” he said.

“Oh I don’t know,” Anna said. “What do girls usually do when they’re bored?”

He looked at her and she looked back laughingly. He _knew_ she wasn’t serious. After a few vague questions a while ago she had hinted that while she was definitely the type of girl to play the field to find out what she liked, she just didn’t have the taste for a varied diet. She was still getting to him though. He was going to give in. Any moment now…

“If I go with you,” Vandal grunted. “Will it make you shut up about it for a couple weeks?”

“It might,” she smiled.

♦

“I’m not dancing,” Vandal told Anna as they entered the Confession. “So don’t ask.” Anna was looking smug enough as it was.

“Fine with me,” she smirked. “You can just sit back and enjoy the show.”

Vandal sat down at the bar and watched Anna twist her way through the crowd and onto the dance floor. She was wearing a tight, dark green dress. That had surprised him somewhat, he had expected red for sure. Anna danced just like she had done that time at the Asylum. Not for herself, but with the intention of being watched. Vandal did watch her and he was at least enjoying himself somewhat. A lot of people were looking at Anna and he considered how unlikely it was that he should have such a woman all to himself. Anna had made it very clear that she was an exclusive sort of person. “I only entertain one obsession at a time,” she had said. She had likewise made it evident that while she didn’t require him to be exclusive at all, she clearly depended on her being more than enough for him.

A guy with a rather obvious surfer getup was trying to dance with Anna. She seemed amused by this at first, but he kept coming closer and Anna was quite obviously getting tired of pushing his grabby hands away. Vandal watched them with a cold look on his face. The surfer was very persistent. Anna brushed him off and started dancing very deliberately with another girl. This seemed only to make him more interested, however. Vandal began to grow impatient with the scene. He had seen Anna rebuff unwanted advances with enough venom to make guys shrivel up before her very eyes. If she _wanted_ to get rid of that idiot, she could. After what Vandal considered to be way too long Anna tired of dancing and getting groped and came to sit with him.

“You look terribly bored,” she observed cheerfully, sounding slightly out of breath.

He hadn’t been bored, just thoughtful, but he didn’t bother to correct her. “Don’t like clubs,” he replied. At least that was true. “If you wanted to put on a show for _me_ , I have some other things in mind.”

She laughed at that last, lower spoken comment and said: “If you hate clubs so much why do you go there? You-” She broke off mid-sentence and her eyes started twinkling darkly. “You _do_ go to clubs,” she said, sinking her voice. “But only to _hunt_.”

He didn’t reply. He was studying the look of mischief on her face. Where was she going with this?

Anna smiled impishly and swivelled round on her bar stool so she could scan the crowd. “If you’re so bored, why don’t we do something _you_ like?” she suggested.

Vandal glanced at her. Surely she wasn’t suggesting what he thought she was.

“Go on,” she coaxed. “Pick someone sweet. I’ll help you catch them if you want.” She repressed a giggle. “Or I could sit back in admiration and watch you work.”

“You’re not serious,” he said flatly.

“Of course I am,” she smiled, leaning against him. “Unless you don’t want to play…”

Vandal made a soft scoffing noise. Was she mad? Did she really want to lure someone to the blood bank together? Or was she just trying to get a rise out of him? Surely she wouldn’t want to get her perfect little hands dirty… He glanced at her. Anna was watching the crowd of drinkers and dancers with a strange look in her eyes. On the surface it seemed nothing but absence of mind, but in the depths of her eyes he recognized the deeply rooted disdain. Would she actually do it? Would she take a person by the hand and lead them smilingly to him, to their death? It was too tempting an offer not to take her up on it. Even if she couldn’t do it, seeing her _try_ would be something.

“Him,” he said suddenly, nodding towards the surfer, who was still dancing.

“Why?” Anna said, surprised. “Just because he got a little handsy?” She grinned. “Don’t tell me you’re jealous.”

“He’s not from round here,” Vandal continued calmly. “And he looks clean…”

“Fair enough,” Anna said amusedly. “But wouldn’t that be a little suspicious? Him disappearing after making a pass at me with you watching.”

“It would…if he was seen leaving with me,” Vandal said.

“Oh, making me do all the work, are we?” Anna teased.

“You wanted to help,” he grinned. She wouldn’t do it. He was certain she wouldn’t. There was too much that could go wrong and what on earth was in it for her? Unless she was doing this for _him_. Or…unless she actually _wanted_ to do it. The thought made the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. The thought of Anna deliberately killing someone – sweetly smiling, beautiful Anna – it was an unreal image.

Beside him Anna was dangling her legs absentmindedly. “Mmm,” she hummed thoughtfully. She was looking at the young man with a calculating look on her face. “I don’t know…”

“Don’t know what?” Vandal prompted. “Whether he deserves to die? They all do.”

“No, whether he deserves to live,” Anna said and she slid off her barstool and went back to the dancefloor.

With astonishment that quickly turned into excitement Vandal watched how Anna went straight for the surfer and started dancing with him again. He was not as surprised as he should have been and welcomed her with far too much confidence. Vandal could hardly believe what he was seeing. Anna was laughing and dancing just like she had before, but this time there was an edge of deliberation to her actions. She was actually trying to decide. He was watching her decide over the life of another human being. The noise in the club seemed to fade away. He watched Anna intently, trying to read her face. She was too far away for him to see everything and he desperately wanted to see. Had she done something like this before? What had suddenly made her want to do this? Was it just to entertain him? He followed her with his eyes as she danced closer and closer to the hapless surfer. She was still undecided, Vandal was sure of that. They danced very close and seemed to be talking. Anna whispered something in his ear and Vandal felt an icy smirk crawl up his lips. He would have loved to hear the surfer’s answer, because it was the _wrong_ one.

Vandal saw Anna’s demeanour change. Something in the way she held herself was suddenly decidedly different. When she turned her head he could see the remnants of a sneer around her lips, just before she smiled brilliantly and caught the surfer’s hand to pull him closer. _His_ demeanour changed too, shoulders broadening with the increase of confidence her encouragement gave him. Vandal watched, trying not to stare or to attract attention to himself. Not that the guy was likely to notice him at all, Anna had his full attention. They were dancing a little to the side now, where the flashing lights weren’t so glaring. Anna was flirting shamelessly now and Vandal actually thought her behaviour was rather off-putting. She was opening her eyes too wide and was twisting her body in a strange, unnatural way. He didn’t like it. The surfer seemed to like it however. Anna gave him a playful tap on his chest and suddenly he lunged forward and kissed her, immediately planting his hands on her ass as she leaned against him in surprise. Vandal felt a strange snarl inside him, but kept watching as Anna wriggled out of the kiss and playfully admonished the guy. It was always fun to get someone new in the chair, but he was going to enjoy draining this one especially.

Now Anna had made up her mind it didn’t take her long to get what she wanted. Vandal saw her whisper something and the surfer answered her with a drunken grin and an enthusiastic reply. Anna took him by the hand and led him away, off the dancefloor and towards the exit. The surfer trailed behind her with a triumphant smirk on his face. Anna turned her head to smile brilliantly at him and just before she turned back, she gave Vandal a single delighted look. He repressed a grin and slid off his seat, following Anna and her beau to the clinic at a safe distance.

♦

“That was quite the performance,” Vandal chuckled, closing the freezer door behind him. “I’ve never had anyone sit down in the chair voluntarily before.”

“Cocky boys and their kinks,” Anna scoffed, studying her nails.

Vandal turned to her with a grin. “Was that what made you decide he didn’t need to live?” he asked.

Anna gave him an unconcerned look. “I have no time for guys that behave like trash in public and suddenly want you to play mommy when you get them alone. What good is a man that doesn’t live up to his reputation?”

Vandal smirked.

“Besides,” Anna said. “Men _suck_ at being submissive. They think that lying back and letting the woman do all the work is and I quote ‘some kinky shit’.”

Vandal laughed softly. “Harsh words… And here I thought you’d jump at the chance to tie someone up and make them beg for your mercy.”

Anna turned her eyes on him with a sudden intensity. “Oh, I might… But only with a man whose submission would actually be _worth_ something.”

Vandal stared into the darkness in her eyes, mesmerized, but Anna blinked and broke the spell, saying dismissively: “But if that hadn’t been enough to convince me, that horrid excuse for a kiss would have.” She made a gagging sound and Vandal chuckled.

“Right,” he said. “That reminds me.” He grabbed Anna around her waist and pulled her towards him. Quickly he slid one hand into her hair and forced her face towards his, kissing her deeply and roughly. This was what she liked and he knew it. Anna moaned into his mouth and kissed back with what seemed pure instinct. Vandal enjoyed that feeling immensely. He could feel she wasn’t playing with him like she had played that dim-witted surfer. She still played him of course, drove him fucking nuts too, but she was using her real self to do it, and that made all the difference. She couldn’t play him without actually giving him something of herself in return.

“Oh, ‘scuse me, carry on.”

Anna pushed Vandal off her and hastily stepped away from him. The nurse that had walked in on them turned away, biting her lip to keep from laughing and the door to the freezer room slammed shut again.

“Oops,” Vandal said insincerely.

Anna had turned pale, either with embarrassment or anger and tried to fix her hair. “You wipe that smirk off your face,” she snapped and she led the way out of the room with tense steps.

Vandal followed, grinning uncontrollably. They had had sex in her _office_. She literally just helped him kidnap someone with the intent of _killing_ them and now she was throwing a hissy fit because they had been caught making out. It wasn’t like everybody at the hospital didn’t already know about them. They hadn’t exactly been trying to hide it.

“I’m going home,” Anna announced irritably. “See you tomorrow.”

“Hey, princess,” Vandal said and she turned around to look at him. He made sure to look her in the eye. “Did you enjoy our date?”

The annoyed expression on Anna’s face wavered. She managed to keep her mouth under control, but there a spark had lit up in her eyes. Yes, he could tell she had enjoyed it. _Of course_ she had enjoyed it. She had adored luring a useless sheep to slaughter and he had _loved_ watching her do it. Watching her string that guy along only to turn him over to him. He had to admit, she made teamwork worthwhile in a way it never had been before.

“Yeah,” she said, after a long silence. “We should do it again sometime.” And with that she walked away, leaving Vandal to grin to himself and return to the blood bank to prepare for a new batch of inventory.

♦

It took Anna a couple of days to recover from that extraordinary ‘date’ at the Confession. She really shouldn’t have done it. Why not though? It had been fun. Perhaps, but it had been unnecessary. More importantly, it had been dangerous. It was unwise to let Vandal coax her like that. Then again, she was pretty sure he had enjoyed it even more than she had. She smiled involuntarily. Still, there were more elegant ways to keep him interested. Yes…but not nearly as fun. She frowned at herself. Was that what she was doing? Keeping him interested? It was pretty damn clear by now he was incapable of staying away from her. Physically and practically. She had freed him from Therese and that had bound him to her, at least for the present. It was convenient and it was flattering, in a way. It was fun to see someone with so much hate for everything and everyone around her so unwaveringly fixed on her. And he gave her the parasite blood she needed. That’s why that stupid boy was more useful dead than alive. Yes, that was why she had done it. His blood would feed the parasite and the parasite would give her blood for her to experiment with. Anna felt the glow of pride in her chest and basked in it.

All her tests so far had been successful. Any immediate trauma short of dismemberment was repaired immediately and she was crossing diseases off her list rapidly. Infections, viruses, organ failure. The vitae was successful in curing them all. And it had no side effects beyond temporary elevated heart rate and body temperature. It was _perfect_. Yesterday she had given it to a patient in the ER whose hand had been nearly ripped off. When the surgeon arrived they only needed a couple stitches. The nurses had put the wrong diagnoses down to being overworked, which they certainly were. Anna grinned. She had forgotten to tell Vandal about that, she should remember to do so next time. He would enjoy hearing about their squabbling while the surgeon snapped at them for calling him to a routine case. Her grin faltered and she hesitated. Why should she tell Vandal? Surely she didn’t need to tell him to have enjoyment in it. Of course not. She didn’t _need_ anything from anyone. She knew that. But she wanted to tell him. Just like she had wanted to feel his eyes fixed on her as she flirted with that idiot. Just like she wanted to feel his hands and mouth on her. She didn’t need any of that. She just wanted it and when she wanted something she got it. Yes. It was as simple as that. Quite simple.

Simple… Suspicion swirled deep inside her and tried to latch on to her through the strange sort of carefreeness that sometimes filled her when she thought of Vandal. It was such a nice feeling. Like running without a fear of tripping, jumping without ever falling. _He_ could make her fall. He knew too much about her. She had given far too much away. No one would ever believe him though, even if he tried to tell on her. Therese might believe him… But he would never go back to her. Anna smiled. She could reduce him to going back to Therese and he wouldn’t want to run that risk. Vandal needed her as much as he wanted her. But he still might expose her, he was clever enough to pull it off. He’d never be able to save himself, but he might drag her down with him. They had killed someone together. Oh yes and it had been _such_ fun. _Fun_. Anna let out a nervous laugh. What fun. Teetering on the brink of destruction, dancing together on the edge of a cliff, both fully capable of pushing the other one over.

“Well,” Anna said quietly to herself. “What is any relationship but a perpetual state of mutual blackmail?”

Relationship? No, she shouldn’t call it that. That was swinging her legs over the edge. Anna blinked and found herself staring out of the window. It would be nice…jumping without ever falling.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And if you look to your left, you’ll see Anna’s severely messed up opinion on men and masculinity. Honestly, Anna scares me more than Vandal. He hates everything and everyone and you can tell he’s mad from a mile off, Anna is just as disturbed, but you won’t notice until it’s too late. She has one hell of a god complex, just like her daddy did.
> 
> Here’s another song for her, Amanda Palmer’s rendition of [“I Want You, But I Don’t Need You”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UYEZnhnVCg&ab_channel=OtterFreak). It’s very appropriate for her current state of mind.
> 
> (You have probably noticed I am slowly turning up both the violence and the sexual content. I mean for them to gradually increase as the story progresses, I hope all my readers are okay with that. If not, please tell me and I can try to release censored chapters if you want!)


	12. Change of Plans

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Content warnings:** Sexual content, very vague dub-con.

“Give you a ride to my place?”

Anna looked up from her work and smiled tiredly at Vandal, who was leaning in the doorway of her office.

“Not today,” she said. “My body’s out of sorts.”

He gave her an appraising look. So that meant sex was off the table, pity, but he had had an annoying day and he could do with some of her…conversation, company, presence? Whatever. He could do with some of her.

“I appreciate your one-track mind, princess, but you could just come over for a drink,” he offered.

Anna tapped her fingers on her notes. “Alright,” she gave in and she started tidying her papers.

Vandal watched her with some conflicted feelings, but when she turned around and smiled at him he just grinned and walked her out of the hospital. In the car Anna sat back with a tired look on her face, but whenever he glanced at her she smiled faintly. A faint voice at the back of his head wondered what was wrong with her and another suggested in a rather pleased tone that she was not fully in control now and that he had still persuaded her to come with him.

“What’ll it be, princess?” he asked once they were in his living room.

She shrugged indifferently and sat down. He poured them both a whiskey and sat down opposite her. Neither of them said anything for a while. Anna didn’t touch her drink. At length she began to free her hair from its updo and massaged her scalp, letting her hair tumble down her face. Vandal watched her, drinking silently, enjoying the sight. Anna combed through her hair with her fingers a couple of times, wincing whenever she hit a snag and eventually let her head fall back onto the seatback of the couch with a sigh. She closed her eyes.

“You know,” she muttered. “I’ve never met anyone I could shut up with so easily.”

She smiled faintly and Vandal watched her slowly relaxing face. She looked almost as if she was sleeping. That was a strange thing to say, wasn’t it? It was true though. It didn’t matter to him if Anna was silent or talking. He really didn’t mind, as long as she was there. _That_ was a strange thing to think. Vandal frowned. He didn’t want _anyone_ like he wanted Anna. He had never felt anything like this before. Not even way back. The only one he had ever wanted this much was Therese. But this wasn’t like that at all. He was not helpless now, he wasn’t following, he was pursuing. This was like… Like the chronic version of a fleeting feeling he sometimes got when he saw a particular stranger and caught a whiff of their scent. With some people, when they walked by…he was just overcome by an intense desire to touch them. Feel them. Those were the people that got him into trouble. The people he went after despite his better judgement, sometimes even disobeying Therese’s direct orders. The people that ended up in his chair only because they decided to scream… Or that didn’t even make it to the clinic, because they fought him or he couldn’t help himself and ended up plunging a knife in their side. It was like that with Anna, except… all the time. And she never tried to run. Not really.

Vandal put his glass down and made up his mind. He had to know. “I know it’s never done me any good asking before, but I’m going to ask you again,” he began. “Why did you come on to me? And don’t insult me by repeating that little sing-song of yours about never wanting anything from me. You’re a world-class liar, princess, but I _know_ when you lie to me.”

“That makes me a _bad_ liar,” Anna hummed, opening her eyes and glancing at him.

“No, it makes me a bad victim,” Vandal said. “And the fact that I don’t know _what_ you’re lying about proves you’re really rather remarkable.”

She smiled and said with pleasant mockery: “Oh thank you, Mr. Malkavian Mind Reading Ghoul.” She made a thoughtful noise. “Has that changed, by the way? The psychological side effects? Along with Therese’s influence? I mean, I presumed they did, but I never asked-”

“Don’t change the subject,” he demanded. “Tell me. Tell me what you thought back then. It makes no difference anymore to what we are now anyway.”

“Then why do you want to know?” she asked with a sigh.

He grimaced at her. “Have you _met_ me and my obsessive nature, princess?”

Anna smirked, but still didn’t answer.

Vandal weighed his options. Threatening probably wouldn’t have the desired effect. He waited.

She looked at him thoughtfully, playing with her hair. “I don’t want to tell you,” she said suddenly, with a challenging smile. “You don’t _deserve_ to know.”

“Need something in return, do you?” he grunted.

“Nothing you want to give me,” she said conversationally. “I’m not going to tell you because I don’t trust you. And why should I trust you? You don’t trust me.”

Vandal raised his head. That was what this was about? Her and her fucking trust fetish. He would never understand how she could be like that, so eager to manipulate and have people submit to her and equally delighted to have him force her on her knees and drag her by the hair.

“You think I don’t trust you,” he said blankly.

“You don’t,” she smiled.

He sat up in his chair and gave her an incredulous look. “What was all that philosophical bullshit about then? _You_ were the one pointing out that I let you inject me with God knows what.”

“Mm, that doesn’t _really_ mean you trust me though. Your alternative is eternal enslavement. True, you trust me to help you, but in your case that’s just choosing the lesser of two evils.”

Vandal grimaced. The lesser of two evils. That may have been how it started, but he was far beyond that now. He didn’t _want_ to trust Anna, but…he guessed he did. He trusted her to smile at him when she saw him. To come to him when he wanted her. To not have the desire to leave… Abruptly Vandal got to his feet and left the room.

“Was it something I said?” Anna called after him sarcastically.

Vandal didn’t answer. He went to the hallway, snatched his spare set of keys from their hook and walked back. He dropped them on the couch beside Anna without a word.

“What’s this?” she asked, picking them up.

“The keys to my damn home,” he said gruffly.

Anna stared at him. He looked back silently.

“Why… Why would you give that to me?” she asked, sounding genuinely baffled.

“Might as well,” he said, sitting down on the couch, but keeping his eyes fixed on hers. She looked _really_ uncomfortable.

Suspicion and confusion flickered wildly across her face, until she forced them into a sweet smile and said: “Well…you sure know how to make a girl feel special.”

Vandal smirked. She really was one of the best liars he had ever met, but he knew her too well to fall for her tricks now. He could see the disturbed feelings behind her eyes. Apparently she had genuinely not expected him to admit that he trusted her and doing so had obviously struck a nerve. He grinned. She hated to be surprised. The keys had been the right call. To someone like Anna, who after all this time still preferred to go home with him rather than to let him into her own space, it must carry considerable weight. In reality though, what did it really matter? What was she going to do now, that she couldn’t have done before? Nothing. It was just the symbolism that counted.

Anna’s smile had begun to falter under his steadfast gaze and Vandal stood his ground until she averted her eyes. She stared at the keys in her hands and pressed her lips together. Vandal watched her with rapt fascination. Here she was, getting _exactly_ what she wanted, his submission, and she was upset. She almost looked angry.

“You know,” he said, as if changing the subject. “I never felt the inclination to take part in any art but that of pain and blood, but-” He placed two fingers on her chin and turned her face towards him. “-I’d give a lot to be able to capture that look on your face right now.”

She looked back at him with troubled, dissatisfied eyes. He couldn’t even explain the beauty of it. It was a mixture of wavering restraint and impending relenting, with anger frantically trying to figure out which side to choose.

He kissed her. Way more languidly and gently than he usually did. When he drew back the anger in Anna’s face had subsided and her eyes were big and dark.

“I hadn’t expected you to be _you_ ,” she said with a sort of hesitant resignation. “From the first time I met you I suspected you were a ghoul. There _is_ something different about you, and you reminded me of the others I had seen…” She looked away, turning her head a little. “So I looked into it and considering your situation it seemed very likely that you _were_ a ghoul. You running the blood bank and all. In a city with such a high presence of vampires it seemed almost ridiculous for you _not_ to be in league with them. But that meant I had to conduct my research right under the nose of someone that might actually be able to understand and expose it. So I had to keep an eye on you.”

Vandal lazily traced Anna’s jugular through her skin with his index finger and listened.

“I tried to be nice to you,” she said. “But you didn’t really seem to like nice.”

He smirked.

“And you were…well…just my type.”

He glanced up and looked into her eyes for a second, but didn’t interrupt. _Her type_. She had a fucked up taste. …she was a fucked-up girl.

“So I thought I’d try the other route. That worked a lot better. You still didn’t like me, but at least you were interested in me, invested in me in some way. That was all I wanted. That was enough to make sure I could do as I pleased. But when I found out you actually _hated_ your regnant…”

He looked at her again and saw a strange, strained sort of look on her face.

“I had _never_ seen a ghoul that was capable of hating their regnant,” she said emphatically. “I had to know how it was possible. So I decided to let you know that I knew what you were. Your reaction was nowhere near as violent as I expected it to be. Even when I started dropping hints of the other things I knew, started asking questions, you didn’t seem to mind. Not enough to shut me up at least.”

“Would you have shut up if I had wanted you too?” Vandal chuckled.

“That’s what I mean,” Anna said seriously. “Why would you even care about my compliance? You could have just killed me. You _should_ have just killed me.”

“Might have been fun,” Vandal admitted, brushing past her bottom lip with his thumb. “But you’re a lot more interesting to me alive.”

“I know,” Anna said, lowering her voice. “And that’s why I knew you wouldn’t try to sabotage me. At least not without doing something that would give me ample notice beforehand. That was all I really needed to know. So… you were right, I did want something from you. I wanted to get close enough to you, one way or the other, so that I could be sure of knowing when you’d become a risk to me and my work. That was it. I never planned on actually telling you about my research. I never planned on working together like we do. All I wanted was to get into your bed and under your skin a little… Everything else that happened after was…more than I bargained for.”

More than she bargained for. Vandal grimaced. You and me both, princess, he thought.

♦

Vandal didn’t see Anna at work the next day. Nor the day after. He sat in the blood bank serving an endless stream of stinking bloodsuckers and wondered where she was. At the end of his shift on the second day he went to look for her, but she wasn’t in her office and her lab was dark too. He drove home lost in thought and only noticed the lights in his apartment were on when he had already closed the door behind him. What the-

“Welcome home,” Anna greeted him. She was sitting on his couch with two glasses of brandy beside her. She must have brought her own. “Drink?” she said with a grin, holding one out to him.

He laughed and let himself fall down onto the couch beside her before taking the glass out of her hand.

“Still sure you don’t want them back?” she teased, gesturing to the keys lying on the old chest he used as a side table.

“What?” Vandal grinned. “And miss out on more surprises like this?”

She smiled into her glass, taking a sip and Vandal knocked back most of his brandy in one go. He glanced at Anna. She was wearing a dress he had never seen before and her hair was only partially pulled back, most of it hung freely down her back. He tried to remember the last time she had worn it in a tight bun and couldn’t… When had she stopped wearing those?

“What?” Anna asked, twinkling her eyes at him.

“Finish your drink,” he ordered darkly.

She laughed and reached for her glass again.

♦

“Crazy woman,” Vandal grunted, feeling the sore spots on his neck where Anna had bitten him.

“It doesn’t even leave any marks,” Anna said. “They fade _immediately_.”

She sounded a little resentful of that fact and Vandal laughed out loud. “For someone who hates bloodsuckers, you sure have quite the oral fixation, princess.”

Anna snarled at him. “If I do you’re the first one to benefit from it,” she said with a suggestive flick of her tongue.

“Did I sound like I was complaining?” he chuckled. He really had no right to speak, he left more than enough marks on _her_ , just of a different kind.

“Hm…” Anna hummed, stretching her legs in the air.

They lay in silence for a while, but Vandal knew what was coming. The same thing that always happened once Anna had gotten down from her high. She left. He watched her slowly pull herself together and suddenly she sat up and moved towards the end of the bed to get dressed. Impulsively his hand shot out and caught her by the wrist. He always slept better after she’d been over. For a couple days after actually. For as long as his bed smelled like her… But it was not enough.

“What is it, Vandal?” Anna smiled, looking back at him.

“I want you to stay,” he said, sitting up.

“Why?” she asked.

Why did she need a reason? Couldn’t she just stay? “Because I don’t hate you,” he said.

She laughed and tried to pull her hand out of his grip, but he wouldn’t let go and gave her a serious look.

“You don’t understand,” he said. “I _despise_ people. All people. I want them sometimes. I need them sometimes. And I hate them even more for that. But I don’t hate you, even though I want you.”

Anna looked at him, no longer smiling. She lay back down on the bed, convincing him to let go of her arm for now, and stared up at the ceiling. “I like you, Vandal,” she said. “I do, but…”

“You don’t have to like me,” he said leaning over her. “Despise me if you want. Just stay.” This wasn’t just about now. Anna didn’t belong here, in Santa Monica, at the clinic. But he wanted her to belong to him and he _needed_ her to stay. The thought of her leaving was _repulsive_.

“And if I stayed with you,” she said, rolling on her side to look at him. “What would we do?”

“Anything we wanted,” he grinned and he leaned down to kiss her.

Anna sighed while he kissed her neck. “What would you want to do then?” she mumbled.

Vandal ran the hand he wasn’t leaning on across her naked body. “Complete your research,” he said, lightly biting her shoulder.

“That’ll take time,” she murmured.

“Leave this fucking place,” he said. “Together.”

“What about the Queen Bitch?” Anna said.

“Fuck her,” Vandal smirked. “I’m free now.”

“Would you want to give up your powers?” Anna asked. “We’ll run out of vitae eventually. And I thought you were afraid she’d come after you?”

“Not if we kill her,” Vandal grinned.

Anna stared at him. “What?” she said.

“I’ll kill her,” Vandal said. He had thought of it so many times. Planned it out in more details than he could remember. Why not just do it. “We’ll drain her, take all her blood, enough to complete your research. And then we leave all this behind for good, together.”

“No,” Anna said firmly.

“Why not?” Vandal snarled.

“She’ll kill _you_ if you try,” Anna said. “I don’t want that.”

He regarded her quietly. She looked at him solemnly for a moment and then she shook her head and sat up, ready to get out of bed. Vandal moved quickly and pulled her back onto the mattress. She couldn’t leave, not now, he wouldn’t let her. He had spilled the thoughts he had been holding in all this time and now she had to stay and think about them. Silently he slipped a hand between her legs.

“What are you doing?” she asked with an exasperated laugh.

“Making you stay,” he said, inhaling the scent of her hair.

“I wasn’t leaving,” Anna said, sighing a little when he moved his fingers between her thighs.

“Liar,” he chuckled. He rubbed and touched until she started squirming.

“I like your tongue better than your fingers,” she panted, biting back a moan.

“Hm, but I want to see your face,” he said in a low voice. Carefully he slid two fingers inside of her and she gasped. “Does that make up for it?” he chuckled.

Vandal curled and moved his fingers inside her and teased her until her breath had become shallow and raggedy. She was no longer fighting him. She never could fight her own pleasure. She was his, at least for now.

“Help me think of a way to kill her,” he whispered in her ear. “If you’re afraid she’ll hurt me, help me to do it safely. There must be a way.”

Anna sighed, swallowing a moan and shook her head.

“You can think of something,” Vandal coaxed. “You’re like me, princess, we’re too clever to be normal.”

She mumbled something unintelligible.

“We’ll both get what we want,” Vandal whispered. “I get to kill and drain the Bitch… you get to cure cancer.”

A smile flickered across her face.

“See?” Vandal said, moving his hand a little faster. “You’re already thinking about it…”

Anna looked at him, face swimming with pleasure. “No,” she said.

“Liar,” Vandal chuckled again.

He pressed his mouth against hers and stifled her cries when he made her come. He relished the tension he felt take possession of her entire body, before she went limp in his arms. Even then he didn’t let go. He held her possessively, listening to her breathing, that became deeper and deeper. He reached out and pulled the nearest piece of covering over them both. Anna’s eyes drifted to his wearily and they looked at each other for a moment. She let out a small sigh, and closed her eyes in resignation.

Vandal did the same, not even bothering to hide his triumphant smirk. He fell asleep almost instantly.

♦

Anna followed the rhythm of her own breathing, slowly sorting through the muddled mess of thoughts and emotions inside her. She wanted to go home. Why had she let him talk her into staying? Well, using ‘talk’ in the loosest sense of the word. Vandal was asleep already, at least the arm that still lay across her middle had gotten significantly heavier. Anna opened her eyes. This was ridiculous. She hadn’t slept in the same room as another person since her father’s death. What the hell was Vandal’s problem anyway? They had a good thing going, right? Except…where was it going? Anna knew she should be happy. Proud. All her theories had been correct. There were only a few hurdles left to take. The vitae behaved exactly as she thought it would, no, better. There were no side effects. She had cured incurable patients. She had freed a ghoul. No, she had not freed Vandal. Not really. Therese Voerman still owned him, like she owned most of Santa Monica. Anna felt the familiar anger flare up inside her again. She could not _think_ of Therese Voerman without wanting to throw something against a wall. Just the thought of that filthy parasite, parading around like she still deserved the sweets of life. Anna exhaled slowly and pulled up the layers of icy determination that had kept her cool and focussed all her life. It was no use. Not while she still saw that smirking, undead face in front of her in her mind. Of course she had thought of killing her. She had thought of killing them all. But those were just idle fantasies. Therese was too powerful. It wasn’t worth it. She shouldn’t allow herself to get distracted. Her research was practically finished. A couple more months and she would have enough vitae to… To do what? What was she going to do? Oh, she had had plans. Lots of plans. Anna was never unprepared. But that was before all this happened. Before it had all actually begun to work. Before she met Vandal.

Anna felt a weight pressing on her chest that had nothing to do with the embrace in which Vandal still held her. This hadn’t been part of her plan. None of this had. She had gotten in way too deep. He knew things about her, hell, he knew practically everything about her. How had she let this happen? Well, it had been necessary. She had needed him. _No_ , not needed, wanted. Except…without him none of this would have been possible. Yes, she _had_ needed him. But now she had gotten what she wanted, almost at least, what was she supposed to do next? She couldn’t get rid of him. Not now. Not anymore. And killing Therese…no. No, it was much better if Therese lived. Yes. Anna would leave and Vandal would stay and then he’d be free to decide whether to go back to the life Therese could give him or he could leave as well. She was certain he could. Therese would not come looking for him. She didn’t value him as she ought to. Didn’t see the talent and the passion and the _fire_ in him. Therese didn’t deserve him. Undead parasitic bitch. She deserved to die for touching him. He was _hers_. Anna swallowed. She felt cold all of a sudden. This wasn’t right. She had to get out. She was so tired. She needed to sleep. She couldn’t sleep here.

With as gentle a movement as she could Anna tried to move away from Vandal. As soon as she shifted her weight, however, he made a muttering noise in his sleep and tightened his arm around her waist, pulling her back. Anna froze. She couldn’t breathe. Beth. Beth had held her just like that. When things had been nearly at their worst, just before it all went to hell, she had begged Anna to come stay with her. She was afraid to go home alone. She was afraid of the dark. Afraid to go to sleep. Afraid of everything. She had begged until Anna had come back to her place and had promised she would sit up with her until she could sleep. It had been silly, but Anna hadn’t been able to say no to her. Not to Beth. She had held Beth and talked to her until she had fallen asleep with her head in her lap. Anna had meant to go home, but whenever she tried to move Beth would whimper and grab at her, to keep her close. She had wrapped her arms around her middle and slept like that. Holding on to her as if Anna was her only lifeline. Anna hadn’t slept a wink that entire night.

Anna wanted to run. To run as fast as she could, as far away as possible. She wanted… She wanted… She wanted to run without tripping and jump without falling. Anna exhaled the breath that had been strangling her from the inside and let herself sink into Vandal’s sleeping form. She slid back until her back touched his chest and this time there were no sleepy protests, as if he felt the difference of the movement. Anna could feel herself shaking, but she also felt the heat from Vandal’s body all around her. A girl was allowed to change her mind. Everything she ever wanted wasn’t enough anymore. Vandal was special. She had never met anyone like him and she knew she never would again. If she wanted him, why should she have to let him go? Why did she have to give him up? And for what? To leave with her vitae to some other place with faceless people who could never understand who she was and what she was capable of? To leave him to the likes of Therese Voerman? The smouldering burning inside her came back, but it wasn’t just anger this time. So, she had changed her mind. Or had she? Had she just now changed her mind, or had it been changing all along? It didn’t matter. Not anymore. She _had_ changed her mind and now she only had to change her plans. Anna closed her eyes and breathed in time with Vandal’s rhythm. Yes, change of plans. Perhaps… perhaps Therese Voerman had to learn to stay _dead_ and Vandal Cleaver had to learn to stay hers.

♦

When Vandal woke up, Anna was still lying next to him. She was moving strangely, twisting her head against the mattress.

“The fuck are you doing?” Vandal asked groggily.

“You slept on my hair,” Anna complained. “Or _I_ slept on my hair. Either way, it hurts.”

He let out a rough laugh. That was so mundane it was ridiculous. He felt fucking amazing though. He watched Anna get up and move sleepily through the room with a foreign sort of contentment.

“I’m going to take a shower,” Anna announced.

“Help yourself,” Vandal said with a yawn, getting up as well.

Anna walked into the bathroom and called back something he couldn’t quite hear. When she came out again she was quickly braiding her hair.

“What are you doing that for?” he asked.

“I don’t want it to get wet,” Anna said. “It’ll take an age to dry.”

He hummed.

“Care to join me?” Anna invited.

Vandal raised an eyebrow at her. He couldn’t tell whether she was just teasing or not. “Feeling domestic, princess?”

“ _You_ made me sleep over,” she taunted, pinning up the braid. “Now take a shower with me.”

She turned around and Vandal gave a shrug and followed her to the bathroom. Why not?

Anna turned on the shower and waited for it to get to temperature. She clearly liked the water hot, nearly scalding actually, and he was fine with that. He didn’t say anything as they got in the shower and rinsed off the sweat from last night. Anna didn’t talk either, but she pulled faces at him and posed dramatically until he grinned at her. Satisfied, she leaned towards him for a kiss and he took her face in his hands. As soon as she closed her eyes he pressed his mouth against hers and pushed her back so she stood right underneath the shower stream. Anna squealed into his mouth and struggled against him, but he held her in place and only let go when her hair was properly drenched.

“ _Bastard_ ,” Anna spluttered when he let go, angrily wiping the water out of her eyes.

Vandal chuckled at her angry scowl and turned her around. The fact that she let him was telling enough. He reached up and felt around until he found one of the pins that held up her braid. Her wet hair caught on the pin when he pulled it out and she snarled at him. Vandal tutted amusedly at her anger and was a little more careful with the next one. She was still making angry noises at the back of her throat, but they stopped when he started to carefully undo her braid and gently pulled her hair. Vandal let the water wash over her hair until it hung slack down her back and took the brush he usually used on his own hair. Anna made a surprised but pleased sound when he began to gently brush her hair, starting at the ends.

“Now who’s being domestic,” she chuckled.

“Want me to stop?” he said irritably.

Anna leaned into him and made a sound between a drawn-out “no” and a moan of appreciation.

“Then shut it,” he grinned.

He brushed her hair with a care and attention that was nigh obsessive. He _liked_ her hair. He didn’t understand why she, like so many women, insisted on putting it up in clips or hair ties all the time. The only good thing about that was imagining what it would look like when she finally shook it loose. Vandal thought of all the times he had imagined Therese with her hair down. How he had begged silently for her to let him unravel that prim and perfect bun. Vandal grinned. He felt _nothing_. It was such a fucking triumph to be able to think about that now without feeling the slightest attraction. Bleak yellow hair, dead pale skin, dull grey eyes. Ugly dead bitch. Vandal’s grin widened and he pulled the brush smoothly through Anna’s hair, revelling once again in the feeling of having his body and mind be completely free of desire for Therese. And look at all this deliciousness right in front of him, purring for him like a kitten. Anna’s hair was a lot darker now that it was wet and he was pulling out eve **r** y bit of waviness or curl, making it even longer than it usually was. It fell past her shoulder blades now. Vandal put away the brush and stroked her hair with his hand, pulling on it slightly. Anna tilted her head back obligingly and he let one hand snake around her until it rested lightly on her throat. With his free hand he moved aside the curtain of her hair and he dragged his teeth across her shoulder.

Anna swallowed. “How long will your hot water last?” she asked with a poorly repressed edge to her voice.

“Let’s find out,” he growled.

♦

An hour or so later Vandal was sitting on his couch, reading a medical journal with Anna beside him. She was sprawled out on the couch with her feet resting in his lap, drying her hair with a towel and watching a ballet on tv. Apparently she knew the music, because she was humming along absentmindedly. Vandal scanned an article reporting on the effects of sleep deprivation on pain reception and found himself smiling. This couldn’t last. He knew that. They were still living in Therese’s shadow. He was still doing her bidding, and there might not ever be a way to get rid of her, but… he could get used to this.

♦♦♦

She slept over now whenever she came over to his. They didn’t talk about it anymore, he didn’t have to ask her to stay. Vandal knew this was his doing, but he thought something had changed for her too. He couldn’t be certain, however, and he wasn’t certain. Not until he came over to her place one morning.

There were only two instances that he had stayed at her place for longer than the time it took to have a drink, a talk and a screw. The time he had gotten her drunk and she had let him sleep on her couch, locking her bedroom door behind her and the time he had slept in her arms, going to pieces over his desire for Therese. Would she let him stay now?

Anna seemed equally thoughtful, he found her watching him with a strange, hesitant look on her face.

“Got something to ask me, princess?” Vandal smiled thinly.

“Yeah,” she blinked, shaking off whatever thought she had just been having. “Wine or whiskey?”

“Whatever the lady is having,” he replied, relaxing a little.

She chose wine and Vandal saw to it that she had finished her glass, before he tried to coax her into telling him what she was thinking about before. She laughed and evaded his questions and teased him on other subjects, until she suddenly said:

“What’s the worst thing you’ve ever thought of doing to me?”

Vandal glanced at her, putting his glass down. She was watching him with a challenging look in her eyes. She already knew the answer, he was sure. She was merely testing whether he would tell her.

“The _worst_ thing,” he said slowly. “That would be killing you.”

No fear, no shock, no surprise on Anna’s face. Only a quiet satisfaction. “How?” she asked.

Vandal swallowed. He had thought of too many different ways too many times to be able to call forth one specific scenario. It always ended in slitting her throat though. It was always something that allowed him to taste her blood as he kissed her, swallowing her last breath, staring into her dying eyes.

“Mm-hm,” he shook his head. “You don’t get two questions at once. Play fair, princess. It’s my turn now.”

She gave him an amused look and waited.

He grinned. “How would _you_ have killed _me_ , had you decided to?”

Anna narrowed her eyes. “I don’t get to ask a follow up, but you get to ask two questions in one?” she protested.

“ _You_ chose to ask a question you already knew the answer to,” Vandal grinned.

She laughed and moved towards him on the couch, pressing a finger to his neck. “Injection of Ketamine,” she said airily. “Right _here_. Nice and clean.”

“How cold,” Vandal complained. “My way would at least have been passionate…”

But Anna no longer seemed interested in hearing his methods, she sat down on his lap and let her hair tumble past his face. “New question,” she smiled.

“Hm…” he hummed, running a hand through her hair.

“What is the worst thing you _want_ to do to me?” she asked darkly.

Vandal looked at her with lidded eyes. She _knew_. She knew whatever bloody fantasies he had had, they had started to fade long ago. “Well…” he said, sinking his voice. “It starts with a silk scarf wrapped just a little too tight around that lovely neck of yours…”

While he talked Vandal kneaded Anna’s hips with his fingers, feeling how she pressed her legs together to control her arousal. Everything he said. Every dark, disgusting secret he told her. None of it drove her away. It only made her draw closer towards him. That the world had made even one such a girl and that she had found him was incredible. He would never find such another. And he didn’t want to.

“Ready for your return question?” he grinned, after he had let Anna sit on his lap in silence for quite some time.

She didn’t answer, but slanted her head and looked at him, waiting.

“Tell me,” he said. “Out of all your secret thoughts, is there anything terrible and delicious you’ve wanted done to you that I haven’t given you yet?” He closed his hands around her wrists and brought her hands to his mouth to kiss. “Because if so…” he muttered. “I would like to correct my negligence.”

Anna was not shy about answering him and she did not try to send him away after he fulfilled her requests. Instead she fell asleep before Vandal, something that he was sure had never happened since the first night he had persuaded her to stay. Vandal lay silent for a while, but soon opened his eyes again. He was still not used to the feeling of Anna sleeping beside him. He rolled onto his other side to look at her. She was facing away from him. Outside it was day, but here there was only just enough light for him to distinguish the bite marks he had left on her shoulders. They were already turning into round bruises. Like roses blooming on her skin. Her now dishevelled braid was partially covering up the worst one. He wished for more light so he could admire them better, but Anna’s curtains were a lot heavier than his. He doubted she liked sleeping during the day. He had never asked her to work night shifts like he did, she had just sort of gradually let that happen. He wondered if she resented being up at night and sleeping during the day like the bloodsuckers she despised so much. He watched her, sleeping in her own bed with him beside her and smiled. She was so…so… She was… Anna. That was it. There was nothing special about her apart from her just being Anna. The one and only Anna. A girl who would go out of her way to save lives and could talk ceaselessly of mercy and benevolence, but would turn around in a heartbeat and lure someone to their death just because he asked her to. A girl who was cool and in control whatever she did, but that he could tell wanted to smash the world into a thousand pieces as soon as something stood in her way. A girl who didn’t flinch at his threats, delighted in his aggression and kissed him after he told her that he had once planned to kill her. A girl who had been ready to kill him. A girl who had saved his damn sanity, his entire fucking _life_.

Anna rolled over, turning her sleeping face towards him and he stared at her, trying to make sense of his feelings. He had long ago accepted that he didn’t hate Anna, that he _couldn’t_ hate Anna. That, strange as it was, he could want her without despising her for it. He had even accepted that he liked her. But lately he had been forced to realize that he liked everything about her. He didn’t care about all that bullshit about trust and attraction. He didn’t know why he felt what he felt. All he knew was that he wanted her. He wanted her near him. Wanted to see her, hear her, feel her. Wanted her to come to him instead of to anyone else. Belong to him instead of to anyone else. He wanted her to _stay_ and even more than that. He wanted… He didn’t know what. But what he _didn’t_ want, was hurt her. Not even a little. Not even to see the shock flicker in her eyes. He shivered. Oh, he wanted to do terrible things to her. Hurt her, torture her, make her scream and beg and fight him. But only if she let him. Only if she wanted that as desperately as he did.

Anna made a noise and shifted her weight, but didn’t wake up.

Vandal sighed and muttered wearily at her sleeping form: “What the fuck am I going to do with you when you try to leave?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, these two are both in way deeper than they want to be by now. (Vandal doesn’t know how long Anna lay awake agonizing that first night he made her sleep over and he probably never will.)
> 
> This song is way too gentle for Anna and Vandal, but I still listen to it a lot when writing this story: [Eurielle's "Hate Me"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1rHpUENpaU&ab_channel=Equilanora).
> 
> The chapter that’s coming up next is another one of my favourites!
> 
> Thank you for reading and if you stuck with this story this far I would love to hear what you think of it :)
> 
> PS. Did this count as ‘something juicy’, UncannyPrincess? ;)


	13. Appropriate Apologies

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Content warnings:** Graphic violence, references to cancer and cancer treatment.

The universe clearly felt like fucking with him, because Knox came to the blood bank again and held Vandal up for at least a quarter of an hour. When he finally left Vandal’s head felt like it was about to explode. He glance at the clock. Only one in the morning. He groaned. Well, he knew Anna was at the clinic tonight. She had texted him a couple hours ago. Vandal locked the door to the blood bank behind him. It wouldn’t do any harm if he just went upstairs to see Anna for a minute. Just to clear his head.

He heard Anna moving inside her office, but no other voices, so he knocked twice and went in immediately. Anna turned towards him with an abruptness he didn’t expect from her and he stopped in the doorway, looking at her in surprise.

“What is it?” she snapped sharply. “Don’t tell me something _else_ happened?”

Vandal stared at her. She was upset? He couldn’t quite tell whether she was angry or sad. He rather hoped for angry. Anna in a bad mood that _he_ didn’t cause was something rare, her endless good humour was unnerving and he liked seeing her fly off the handle. He relished the days that her colleagues got on her nerves. On those days it was so much easier to get her to indulge in her disdain for humanity. Vandal liked her cruelty better than her mercy, no matter how cruel her mercy sometimes sounded.

“Nothing happened to me, princess,” he said, forgetting to close the door behind him. “Something happen to you?”

She gave him a strained look, eyes shimmering with something that she could barely control. Yeah, that was definitely anger. _Good_.

“One of my subjects died,” she answered bluntly.

Vandal hadn’t expected that. “What?” he said, frowning. “How?”

“I tried treating a patient with cancerous growths in his muscle tissue,” she said angrily. “Advanced stages, they had tried everything, but it kept coming back.” For a short moment she looked a little calmer. “You know what real desperation smells like?”

He nodded silently. He knew it all too well.

“Well, everyone around him was _dripping_ with it,” Anna said. Her lips twitched into a sour smile. “He was going to die and they all knew it. But they were giving the chemo one last try. What better time for a miraculous recovery?” She hissed. “I gave him a shot of vitae and two hours later he was _dead_.”

Vandal swore under his breath. “Do they know it was you?” he asked.

“What?” Anna said irritably. “No, of course not, they think I just took some blood to test something about the antibodies in his system.” She waved her hands about in frustration. “That’s not the point! My vitae _didn’t work_ , Vandal. It didn’t attack the cancer like it attacked infections and viruses. It made the cancer growth’s _worse_. It spread through his body like crazy after I injected him. The vitae _hastened_ the goddamn process!”

Vandal’s mouth twitched. So she had thought she was saving someone and had killed them instead? Accidentally? Even now Anna didn’t look surprised or hurt. She was bloody furious.

“The same thing happened to the fucking mice,” she spat, pacing around the room. “Some of them anyway…”

Black fire was sparking from her eyes and Vandal couldn’t resist the temptation of pushing her further. “Then why did you try the same on a human?”

Anna did _not_ appreciate that. “I thought their bodies were just not strong enough to handle it,” she hissed. “Mice aren’t a perfect parallel.” She closed her eyes and took a deep breath but that did nothing to calm her down. “When you give them too big a dose their stupid hearts give out,” she glared. “I thought a fully grown male could take a dose high enough to actually be helpful. Well, I was right about that, his heart was perfectly fine, right up until the sarcomas _clogged his fucking chambers_.”

Vandal couldn’t help himself. He laughed.

“You think that’s _funny?_ ” Anna spat.

“Yeah, I do,” he snorted. “What a bloody poetic way to go.” It was _hilarious_. The vitae was like a life force, boosting the regeneration of cells and it had helped the _cancer_ instead of the healthy tissue. That was just… “It’s perfect,” he snorted. “Well done, princess.”

Anna stood frozen to her spot for a moment, staring at him in furious disbelief. When she spoke her voice shook with hatred. “Get out,” she hissed.

Vandal’s face fell. “Don’t be like that, princess,” he said, annoyed. “I was just-”

“Get. Out.”

She looked as if she might throw something at him if he didn’t, so he took a step back, but Vandal had no intention of actually leaving. She was being ridiculous.

“So a dying man died a day early,” he said. “No one c-”

“Get the _fuck_ out of my _face_!” Anna screamed and she took a step towards him with such aggression in her movement that Vandal backed out of the still open door.

“Anna-” he began.

“ _Fuck off_ ,” Anna spat and she slammed the door in his face.

Vandal stared at the closed door for a moment and then abruptly turned away and started walking. Silently he paced through the corridors of the hospital. His mind was strangely blank. There were no thoughts, only emotions. Before he had even reached the blood bank, he turned around and marched back. He wasn’t going to be _sent away_. What the fuck had he been thinking? The woman was throwing a damn temper tantrum and only because some meaningless 9-to-5 tool that was going to die anyway snuffed it a little early. What the hell was her problem? He was not going to tolerate this. If she wanted to yell at him, let her, but he was not going to wait patiently at a distance until she was done having her hissy fit.

When he arrived back at her office, however, it was dark and the door was locked. Vandal snarled. For fuck’s sake. He had hardly been gone two minutes. Had she gone home to sulk? Well, he was _not_ going to run after her. He stood in the empty corridor, unable to do anything but scowl.

This was absurd. He actually felt _hurt_. It _physically_ hurt. Not like when Therese was angry with him, he didn’t feel like he was losing his mind, but it still hurt. What the hell had he let this woman do to him? He thought of the look in her eyes as she had screamed at him and his own eyes darkened. Stupid, overemotional girl. What did he care if she didn’t want to see him? Something cold stirred inside him and froze his thoughts for a frantic moment. Something unfamiliar that was very much like fear…

Vandal stood perfectly still for a moment and then he swore, turned around, marched down to his office and turned on the computer.

♦

As soon as Anna was home she picked up the nearest object she could find and threw it against a wall. It was an ornamental bowl and it shattered into sharp little pieces that rained down with merry tinkling sounds. She squeezed her eyes shut and did her best to muffle the scream of frustration that was fighting its way out of her throat. _Failure. Failure. Failure_. Her hand closed around something heavy and she threw it against another wall. The lamp crashed to the floor loudly and Anna screamed at it.

He had _laughed_. He had laughed at her failure. How _dare_ he? That, that- Anna prevented herself from throwing something else and muffled her next cry by pressing her hands to her mouth. What did she care? She didn’t need Vandal’s approval, only his compliance, nothing more. Why did she even tell him about her experiments? _He_ was a goddamn experiment. Nothing. More.

Her eyes stung and she felt tears rolling past her cheeks. Anna screamed again. She shoved her hands into her pockets and her left hand closed around something cold. What was this? Those weren’t her keys. _Vandal’s fucking keys_. She should go to his house and trash his place instead of her own. While she was at it, why didn’t she burn down the damn building? Involuntarily her hand closed around them. She squeezed until the metal dug painfully into her flesh. Why the fuck did he even give her these. Why did she take them? Why didn’t she just leave when she still had the chance? Anna forced her hand open and let go of the keys. No. Anna Deering didn’t need anything. Noting, never, from no one. Her hand stung and she tasted blood when she bit through her lip. Tears of fury were streaming down her face.

Breathe, she thought, _breathe_. Count back from ten and freeze the fire that’s ready to burn the world to ashes. Count your way back to control. She closed her eyes and counted:

 _Ten_ flawless nails.  


_Nine_ shining needles.  


_Eight_ dying mice.  


_Seven_ clueless co-workers.  


_Six_ different hospitals.  


_Five_ different cities.  


_Four_ drained parasites.  


_Three_ tortured ghouls.  


_Two_ broken people.  


_One_ dead patient.  


_One_ dead father.  


_One_ dead friend.  


_One_ worthless, filthy, treacherous, _disappointment_ of a man.  


…One weak, foolish, ridiculous, _stupid_ little girl.

Anna strangled her screams in the first throw pillow she could grab until her throat was hoarse and she was utterly exhausted.

♦

Vandal ran up the stairs of Anna’s apartment building. When he arrived at her door he hesitated a moment and then he leaned on the doorbell. There was no answer. Angrily he pressed it even longer. Nothing.

“Princess!” he barked, banging on the door.

There was still no answer. The door next to hers opened, however, and an old man looked out.

“Oh good, it’s you,” he said. “Did Miss Dearing get some bad news? There was a lot of screaming and crying earlier. Is she alright?”

“She won’t be if she doesn’t let me in soon,” Vandal growled.

“Won’t let you help her, hm?” the man said sympathetically. “Women can be like that.”

Vandal closed his eyes for a moment. He felt the knife he had packed burning on his belt. He could just kill this moron. Home invasions happened every day… No, no. He shouldn’t. It wasn’t worth it.

“She’ll be fine,” he said through gritted teeth. “I’ll see to it.”

“Well, good luck,” the neighbour said with a friendly half-smile and he went back inside.

Vandal took a deep breath and pressed the doorbell again. No answer. Vandal snapped. “Anna, open _the fucking door_!” he yelled. He was _this_ close to pulling it off its hinges.

Abruptly the door swung open and Vandal stepped back. Anna stared at him with eyes that tried very hard to be cold, but that were still glowing with anger and red from crying. She had actually _cried_.

“Have you come to apologize?” she demanded.

“If you like,” he said snidely. “I’m a pretty good liar.” She clearly wanted to slam the door in his face, but Vandal jammed it with his foot and grabbed her arm hard enough to hurt her. “We’re going for a walk,” he told her.

“Like hell I am,” Anna snapped.

“Look,” Vandal growled. “You know I’m not going to beg for your damn forgiveness, so would you just put on a bloody coat and come with me or I’ll _make_ you.”

“Get _off_ me,” Anna hissed.

Vandal let go of her arm, but he didn’t move away from the door. Anna didn’t move either, she just stared at him.

“This better be good,” she snapped and she turned around to get her coat.

The scowl stayed on Vandal’s face, but he felt a stab of triumph. So he had pissed her off, that had hardly been his fault. He’d still make it up to her and if she gave him the chance it _would_ be good, but she needed to know that she _couldn’t_ walk out on him like that.

Anna returned with her coat and shoes on and a stoic expression on her face. She followed him down the stairs in stubborn silence. Vandal didn’t offer her his arm, she’d probably try to rip it off if  he did. He wondered if she would agree to get in his car.

“Where’re going to the beach,” he informed her. “Would you like to walk or take my car?”

“We’ll take mine,” she replied coldly.

“Fine,” he agreed. If driving made her feel in control, he could deal with that. He had never been in a car with Anna without being the driver himself, though, it was strange. She still refused to look at him, keeping her eyes exclusively on the road, but she followed his directions passively.

“Don’t go into the car park,” Vandal said when they were nearly there. “Park somewhere by the pier, there’s no cameras there.”

Anna gave him a sideways glance, but didn’t ask any questions and did as he said. Both the pier and the beach were dark and deserted. The noises of the city seemed insignificant compared to the rushing of the wind and the water, no matter how subdued they were in the still night. Anna stared at the sea for a moment and Vandal let her, he had felt Anna’s anger sink away further during the car ride. She was nowhere near as tense as she had been before, but he suspected that one word out of place would throw her back immediately.

“Where are we going?” she asked after a while.

“Up there,” he said, pointing to a rusty staircase leading up the cliff.

Another sideways glance. “Alright,” she said coolly.

Vandal led the way, trudging through the sand and Anna followed. When he stepped on the staircase Vandal held his hand out to Anna and she took it, seemingly without thinking about it. Vandal took care to show no sign of triumph, but guided her up the steps with careful attention. It was rather difficult to hide his excitement, though, he _really_ hoped Anna would go for this.

Having arrived on the top of the cliff, Anna stared at the sea again. Vandal made a noise to get her attention and she walked with him along the edge of the cliff. He made sure he walked on the outside. There was a strange, heavy silence.

“You could push me off, you know,” Vandal broke it eventually. “I probably wouldn’t survive. Doesn’t that make you feel better?”

“No,” Anna replied coldly.

“Not even a little bit?” he coaxed. “Just the thought that we’re walking here…and that you could kill me any moment and I know it… Isn’t that at least a little bit satisfying?”

She gave him an icy stare. “It’s crude,” she said.

He rolled his eyes. “So you don’t appreciate the beauty of violence,” he said. “I’m sure there’s something in that bag of yours you could kill me with cleanly and quietly. Nobody would know. What did you say you’d use? Ketamine?”

“If I wanted to you hurt you I would have,” Anna said sharply.

“What do you want then?” Vandal asked and he followed it with a rough laugh. “Are you going to make me ask that for the rest of my life?” It slipped out before he realized it, but it made Anna stop dead in her tracks and stare straight ahead of her silently.

“You _laughed_ at me,” she said after a very long silence.

“I laughed at your dead patient,” Vandal corrected her.

“Same thing!” Anna snapped.

Vandal was getting fed up with her not looking at him. If she would just hurry up and admit that she felt trodden on her pretty little toes for no reason they could get to the fun part. “So you want me to pretend I _care_ about some old fool dying just because you were the one standing at his bedside? Is that it? You want sympathy? Fuck that. Sympathy is for pain and regret, you’re just pissed off.”

“Yes,” Anna said, turning towards him abruptly. “I am.” Her voice was level, but every syllable dripped with menace. “It is very… _vexing_ , to have people dying when _I’ve_ just decided they should _live_.”

Vandal almost did an involuntary step back. Christ, she was as terrifying as she was beautiful right now. “So he’s a disrespectful fuck,” he replied, looking straight into her eyes. “How dare that lowlife die without your permission.”

Anna exhaled slowly. “How dare he,” she repeated.

“But it wasn’t just you,” Vandal said smoothly. “There was a whole team of morons messing around with _your_ patient.”

She raised her head a little and Vandal smiled. He was winning her over.

“You need room to work,” he coaxed. “A chance to conduct your experiments as you see fit. Without all this interference.”

“That would certainly help,” she admitted, letting out a sigh that clearly took some of the tension out of her shoulders.

“Well,” Vandal grinned. “That’s why we’re here.”

Anna looked around and fixed her eyes on the run-down house with the chain-link fence around it. “Where exactly is _here_?” she asked.

“This,” Vandal said, taking her hand and pulling her towards the house. “Is the classy place of residence of one Brian Glazer, local dealer in drugs and other nasty things.” He grinned. “Mr. Glazer had something of a career boost after his boss and a couple of his colleagues got killed off by something with sharp teeth and a peculiar appetite.”

“I see,” Anna said, her mouth twitching scornfully. “And what use is Mr. Brian Glazer to us?”

Vandal grinned. The Anna from a few months ago would have said ‘me’, not ‘us’, he was sure of that.

“Mr. Glazer has lung cancer,” he told her. “Very persistent too, keeps coming back. He’s had several operations already. The doctors are running out of options…”

“Hm…” Anna hummed, looking at the house with a slanted head.

“Interested?” Vandal asked, grinning invitingly.

“Maybe…” she said, the ghost of a smile creeping onto her face.

“Good,” he said, unable to wait any longer. “Let’s go.”

He didn’t wait for Anna to reply, but pulled her through a gap in the fence and towards the house. There was no one around, no dogs or security measures either. Through the window they could just see the shape of someone sleeping on a couch.

“There he is,” Vandal whispered. “Far away in dreamland. Let’s go wake him up, shall we? You go in through the front door, I’ll take the back.”

“You’re insane,” Anna hissed softly. “But sure, why not?”

Vandal chuckled and pressed a kiss on her cheek. “You know how to pick a lock, princess?” he asked.

“ _No_ ,” she said, struggling to keep her voice down.

He grinned and pulled her to the front door, kneeling in front of the lock and opening it easily. Drug dealers of all people should know to invest in some deadbolts. He grinned. That’s what you got for being cocky.

“Give me a minute, alright?” he said, standing up again. “And don’t get shot,” he winked.

Anna grimaced at him and he swallowed his laughter as he quickly but silently walked around the house looking for the back door. That door wasn’t even locked. He slipped in without a sound and found his way to the room they had seen through the window. Just as he appeared in the doorway he saw Anna coming in from the other side. He grinned at her and nodded towards the couch, where Brian Glazer was sleeping under a mess of blankets. Next to the couch stood an oxygen tank and a mask hung over one of the arm rests. Anna glanced at him and then back at Vandal, giving him a questioning look. He grinned, took out his knife and made an inviting movement with his hand. Anna hesitated, but suddenly she stepped forward with a new sort of elegance to her movements. She was playing now.

“Hello Brian,” she said in a singsong voice. “Sorry for coming in uninvited…”

Brian Glazer woke up with a start and sat up, staring wildly. “Who the fuck are you?” he rasped.

Anna took a few slow steps towards him. “That’s no way to greet a lady…” she pouted.

The aggressive look on Brian’s face changed into a lopsided grin. “Shit man,” he chuckled, repressing a cough. “Did Johnny send you as a farewell present?”

Vandal’s footsteps made no sound on the dirty floor and Brian’s full attention was fixed on Anna. She giggled by way of a reply and Brian shook his head.

“Dude has messed up timing, but ya gotta appreciate the gesture,” he said hoarsely. “You look expensive, sweetheart.”

“You have no idea how expensive,” Vandal chuckled.

As soon as the cold steel touched his throat Brian froze into place. When his brain caught up with his instincts and he realized what was going on he cursed.

“Watch your mouth,” Vandal hissed in his ear. “There’s a lady present.”

Brian didn’t move, but his tense face suddenly relaxed into a contemptuous sneer. “You’ve come to kill me?” he scoffed. “Go ahead, do me a favour why don’t you.”

“Hm,” Vandal chuckled. “Don’t worry I will. But before that, _she’s_ going to save your life.”

Before Brian could answer, Vandal stuck a needle into his neck with his free hand and pushed down on the plunger. Anna watched with bright eyes how Brian thrashed once or twice before going limp.

“So you _do_ know how to sedate people,” she remarked.

“I prefer a stun gun,” Vandal said casually, standing upright again. “Works just as fast and doesn’t contaminate the blood. _But_ since this is your night I thought we’d do it your way.”

A genuine smile sparked in Anna’s eyes and she walked towards their victim, looking him over with a clinical eye. For someone of his age and profession he was in very bad shape, Vandal could see that as clearly as she could. Easy pickings. Even if he had fought, he would have overpowered him easily. Anna would probably have stood a chance on her own.

“He looks like shit,” Anna remarked. “Smells like it too.”

Vandal stood back and watched her with an appreciative smile on his face.

“Have you read his file?” Anna asked.

“Yes,” he said. “Pretty straight forward really, everything is going downhill and straight to hell.” He dug a couple of folded pieces of printed paper out of his back pocket and handed them to Anna.

She glanced over them, her eyes darting quickly, scanning for details. “The problem is that there is no such thing as ‘cancer’,” Anna mused. “The different types really don’t behave the same at all. I gave the vitae to other patients before and they _didn’t_ die. That’s why I was so shocked, and there’s no way to…” Her voice trailed off and she stared at the page in her hand.

Vandal waited patiently. He was enjoying this immensely. Here they were, standing over an unconscious man and Anna was theorizing away as if she hadn’t a care in the world.

“He’s not this ill from the cancer,” she breathed, glancing at Brian’s hollow face. “It’s the…chemo…” Her expression changed and something brilliant flared up in her eyes. “Maybe…” she began slowly. “Maybe I could use the vitae for the _recovery_ instead of the cure. We _have_ cures for cancer. Imperfect ones, unreliable ones, but workable nonetheless. Operations, radiation, medication. But they are often so aggressive we cannot use them to the fullest, they’d kill the subject if we did. They destroy their immune system, eat away at healthy and cancerous cells alike. But what if we gave them a shot of vitae after the treatment? That way they could recover from things that might otherwise have killed them.” Her eyes were shining as bright as Vandal had ever seen them now and she looked at him with a delighted expression.

“Sounds like an excellent theory to try out on Mr. Glazer here,” he grinned.

Anna frowned slightly and tucked the pages of medical details into her pocket. “Yes,” she hesitated. “But I don’t quite see _how_.” She looked around at the barren room. “We can’t keep him here,” she said.

“So we’ll take him with us,” Vandal shrugged.

“Take him where?” Anna said. “The clinic? One of our _apartments_? That’s a really bad idea. And where am I going to get the necessary drugs without raising suspicion?” She shook her head. “If he had agreed to let me treat him, he might have kept his appointments at the clinic and I could have figured out how much vitae would be enough to support his body, but not so much that it would help the cancer growth at a rate the chemo couldn’t fight it.”

“So what you’re saying is that you need willing patients,” Vandal said, slightly disappointed.

“I’m afraid so,” Anna muttered, biting her lip. “As much as I’d like to work on my own, this is really something I cannot do alone. Still, no matter.” She gave him an excited smile. “I’ll test it on patients in the hospital. I’ll convince St.Martin and Roberts that I’ve got a new way of boosting their immune system or something.”

“Risky,” Vandal observed.

“Sure,” Anna said indifferently. “You’d have to get the timing and the dosage just right, but cancer patients are all too common. So are failed operations and dead patients.”

Vandal smirked. Those careless expressions, the casual disrespect for human life, it was beautiful. “So let me get this straight,” he said, gesturing at Brian with his knife. “ _He_ is useless to you.”

“Sadly, yes,” Anna said regretfully.

He grinned at her. “So you don’t want him?” he asked.

“No,” Anna shook her head. “If we stash him away somewhere there is no way to give him the necessary scans and such to monitor his recovery. At any rate, I would need an oncologist’s help. No, there’s just too many difficulties.”

“Well,” Vandal sighed. “Then you’ve just made me a liar, princess.”

“How come?” she asked, surprised.

“Because I told him I’d only kill him _after_ you had saved his life,” Vandal replied and he plunged the knife straight into Brian’s chest.

The squelching of blood and tissue mingled with the groan of forcefully deflating lungs and Anna’s eyes widened in shock. As the sick man died under his hands Vandal turned his head to look at her. The corners of her mouth twitched and suddenly she burst out laughing. Delightedly, Vandal laughed with her. Nothing quite compared to the high of killing and Anna’s laughter was the perfect soundtrack. It was as if fireworks went off in his brain. It was so long since he had killed someone. Actually, _actively_ killed someone. As fun as it was to watch someone’s life drain away drip by drip, it just didn’t compare to feeling someone’s life expire under your hands in a single instant of sudden violence.

“What did you do that for?” Anna asked, still giggling uncontrollably.

“Cause I felt like it,” Vandal grinned. “Come here.” He grabbed Anna with his clean hand and kissed her.

She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed back enthusiastically. Her taste and smell mingled with the heavy scent of blood surrounding them and Vandal took Anna’s face in his hands to deepen the kiss. When he let go one of her cheeks was smeared with red. Her grey eyes were wide and full of wild delight and Vandal wished she would stay like this forever.

Far too soon she looked away and glanced through the room, reason taking over from passion.

“I guess the police won’t look too closely at a criminal’s death,” she hummed. “But the fact that he’s been sedated before he was killed might look suspicious.”

“Don’t worry about it, princess,” Vandal sighed, still sorry that the moment of perfection had passed so quickly. “The police won’t give a shit about this lowlife.”

“Never underestimate your opponent,” Anna warned him, pressing a teasing kiss on his lips. She glanced at the knife. “Is it significant? Do you want it back?”

“Of course I want it back,” Vandal said. It was just an ordinary knife, but it was _his_.

“Take it back then,” Anna said, but she warned: “Don’t get blood all over yourself.”

“But that’s half the fun, princess,” Vandal chuckled. He was careful though and used one of the blankets to prevent the blood from getting on his clothes.

“That’s not a bad idea,” Anna said, thoughtfully. “Here, let me.” She daintily took the two top corners of the blanket and pulled it all the way across the dead man’s face. “Sleep tight, Brian,” she said, repressing another giggle. “This way the police might think it’s a mercy killing,” she told Vandal.

He chuckled. “Pretty violent mercy killing,” he said.

Anna gave an indifferent shrug. “Who knows, maybe Mr. Glazer asked his friend Johnny to stab him in the chest, destroying the lungs that betrayed him.” She spoke with a mockingly dramatic voice and Vandal snickered.

“Got any other forensic countermeasures to employ, princess?” he asked.

“As a matter of fact I do,” she said playfully. “There’s got to be a kitchen around here, right?”

She looked into two of the rooms and found the kitchen in the second. Vandal followed her and found her opening drawers with a handkerchief wrapped around her hand.

“Ah,” she said sliding open a drawer of random utensils. “Long live disorganized people.” She beckoned Vandal over and nodded at that drawer. “Which of those are closest to the size of your knife?”

Vandal looked. Among other things there was a badly cared for set of knives in the drawer. The biggest but one was quite similar to the knife he had used. “That one,” he said.

Anna picked it up and put it in her purse. “There,” she said. “Much better if this was an impulsive act instead of a premeditated one.”

“You’re far too clever for your own good, you know that,” Vandal grinned. “Was that it?”

“I think so,” Anna smiled.

“Let’s go then,” he said and he led her out through the front door. Anna remembered to wipe the lock and doorknob and made him do the same at the back door. He obeyed, but more to humour her than because he thought it really mattered.

They went back down the stairs to the beach and Vandal kneeled down at the edge of the water to wash his hands and rinse off his knife. Sadly it was too dark to see the red flow into the cold water. Anna stood next to him, looking out at the sea.

“Give me your handkerchief, princess?” Vandal asked, reaching up.

She put it into his hand silently. He dried his hands and carefully wiped the steel blade dry. Then he dipped a corner of the cloth into the water and stood back up, chucking Anna under the chin.

“Hold still,” he grinned and he wiped the smudge of blood off her cheek. “Pity,” he said. “It looked so good on you.”

Anna leaned her cheek against his hand and looked up at him. “Come home with me?” she said quietly.

That was definitely the first time Vandal had heard her say those words. He didn’t reply, he just nodded.

They drove home in Anna’s car, tossing the knife from Glazer’s kitchen in a dumpster along the way. Anna was driving, but her behaviour was completely opposite to what it had been before. This time she chatted incessantly and although she still hardly took her eyes off the road, at least half her attention was fixed on Vandal. He listened to her excited plans with a grin on his face, leaning back in his chair and still enjoying the buzz of a fresh kill.

“I’ll have to see what the vitae does when taken orally," Anna mused. “It is far easier to slip a dose into someone’s food than to secretly inject them.”

“Can you dilute it in water?” he asked.

“I’ve never tried,” Anna said. “But diluting it in saline solution caused no problems whatsoever, so water probably works too.”

By the time they arrived back at her apartment Anna seemed to have talked herself tired, but she was in an undeniably good mood. She seemed to have completely forgotten about her little failure, her head was full of new possibilities. She disappeared to the bathroom while Vandal took off his clothes and got into bed.

Vandal stretched out on the mattress with a grin on his face. He felt _good_. Was it just good? Or something else… Triumphant? Content? Anna emerged from the bathroom in her nightgown and crawled into bed with him. He stretched out his arm and she came to lie against him, resting her head against his shoulder. Vandal stared at the ceiling and let those strange, warm feelings wash over him without questioning them further. This was _right_. It didn’t matter that he never wanted this before or that it was preposterous to even think it could last. He would _make_ it last.

“Vandal?” Anna said softly.

“Hm?” he hummed.

“Thank you,” she sighed. “For tonight.”

He grinned. “Any time, princess,” he said with a chuckle. “If all it takes to make you laugh again is ripping someone open, keeping you happy will never be a chore.”

Anna laughed softly and Vandal looked at her. She glanced up at him and he smiled. She looked so soft and gentle now, but still _real_. The darkness in her was there, but it was nestled around her like a purring kitten. _His_ purring kitten.

“I mean that, Anna,” he said suddenly, gazing into her eyes. “We- We’re good together.”

She looked at him for a quiet moment. “Yes,” she said. “Yes, we are.”

With a tired, happy smile she closed her eyes and Vandal did the same. In his mind the sensations of the night blurred together into one magnificent tapestry of warm blood, cold steel, screaming anger and roaring laughter. They were _so_ good together.

♦

As soon as they woke up, which was not very early in the day, Anna said she had to go out to buy flowers.

“What for?” Vandal asked. He snorted. “You want to send some to the dear departed Mr. Glazer?”

“Very funny,” she grimaced, but Vandal could see the amusement in her eyes. “No, for my neighbour.”

“What?” he frowned. “Why?”

“Because I made a godawful racket last night,” Anna said. “We _both_ did. The apartment to the right of me is empty, but I must have woken up Mr. Ruiz to the left.”

“Yeah,” Vandal said. “He came out to give me some advice on women.”

Anna laughed. “Well, there you go,” she said, putting on her shoes.

“And he needs flowers, _why_?” Vandal insisted.

“Because I’m a good neighbour,” Anna said, buttoning her coat. She flashed him a bright smile. “Always be nice to people you can’t get away from.”

Vandal pulled a face.

“Oh, don’t be like that,” she laughed. “ _You_ don’t have to go.”

“Good,” he said.

Anna rolled her eyes and skipped out the door, calling over her shoulder that she’d be back soon. Vandal shook his head. His eye fell on a broken lamp that stood in a corner. It was the only evidence he had seen of Anna’s outburst here. He chuckled. Next time he’d make sure he was there to see it.

After a while he heard Anna’s familiar step in the corridor and he heard her walk through to the next apartment. There was a distant ringing of a doorbell and Vandal walked to the hallway to listen. Leaning against her front door, he could easily follow Anna’s conversation with her neighbour.

“Miss Deering, how nice of you!” he heard Mr. Ruiz’s voice. “You didn’t need to do that.”

“I wanted to apologize for last night, I had some bad news from back home and I overreacted,” Anna replied.

‘Bad news.’ Wasn’t that exactly what the old fool had said yesterday? How did Anna always manage to guess people’s expectations like that?

“I thought you might have,” came the kind answer. “Don’t worry about it.”

“Ah, but I feel really bad!” Anna protested.

“No need, really.” There was a short silence. “I am glad you decided to let your friend in, he looked really worried you know.”

“Yes, I’m glad too. It was nice of Vandal to come and check up on me.”

“Good man,” Mr. Ruiz chuckled.

“Yes,” Anna answered brightly. “Isn’t he?”

Vandal smirked at the amusement in her voice.

“Well, I hope you get some _good_ news soon,” Mr. Ruiz said.

“Thank you,” Anna said warmly. “I don’t deserve a neighbour like you, Mr. Ruiz!”

There was some friendly laughter and Anna came back inside, twinkling her eyes at Vandal. He laughed and shook his head in fascination.

“How do you do that?” he asked. “Just turn on that…mundanity?”

“I don’t know,” Anna said. “I do it every day. It’s necessary. People know what they want to see and that’s what I give them. It’s the quickest way to get them to give you what _you_ want.” She shrugged. “It’s a game.”

“A game your father taught you to play?” he hummed.

She shrugged again.

“It’s a game I’d lose at, in any case,” Vandal said. He had never passed for normal.

“Nonsense,” Anna said warmly. “You’re a brilliant liar, it’s just a different kind of lying. Besides…” She put a hand to his cheek. “Therese no longer lives in the back of your mind. Maybe it’s time to give the game another try.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When two psychopaths have to make up after a fight it’s bound to be bloody. This is one of my favourite chapters! Not counting the finale it's in my top three for sure :)  
> In case you are wondering, no, Anna has never done anything like this before. She doesn’t have the body count on her that Vandal has, she just has an utter disrespect for any life she doesn’t deem worthy of existing.
> 
> I think there is a shocking lack of angry love songs, the closest I could find for the sentiment of this chapter is Hinder’s “Get Stoned”, which would at least partly have fit Vandal’s approach to this if Anna had still been at her office when he returned: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Qf0tKWb7xs&ab_channel=brookeelovee17


	14. Lost Little Kittens

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Content warnings:** Slight mention of animal cruelty (cats), graphic violence, and my heart breaking into a million little pieces.

Playing people by meeting their expectations was all very well, but Vandal lacked the patience for it. He could just about manage not to be overtly rude, being _pleasant_ was simply too much to ask. Anna seemed to find his frustration amusing. The few times she witnessed him being forced to talk to a colleague she watched with twinkling eyes, deliberately declining to take part in the conversation until he was really ready to wring the other person’s neck. Vandal felt like Anna had, once again, changed ever so slightly. Ever since that wonderful night on the cliff she seemed both more lively and more…herself. To Vandal at least it looked like even her friendly cheerfulness and her cool professional side had a dark edge to it now and he was pretty sure that was not just inside his own mind. Besides, he could trust his mind nowadays. There were other changes too. She was more willing to talk about her past now. When he asked, she answered without evading.

*Tell me another game,* Vandal texted. He was sitting behind the blood bank window, texting Anna in his moments of boredom.

*Dad and I used to play Mistress or Wife,* Anna texted back. *Usually at work gatherings with his peers.*

Vandal snorted. *How old were you?*

*Fifteen?*

*Your father took you to work functions as a teenager?*

*Of course, who was he going to take, my mother?* The sarcasm was palpable, even over text.

Except this would have been _after_ her mother left. Vandal resisted the temptation to point that out. When she was in the right mood Anna clearly liked talking about her father, but whenever he mentioned her mother she always shut him down. *Must have been interesting when you got older,* he teased. *You think his colleagues played Mistress or Daughter?*

*Ha Ha. Funny,* she sent back. *No chance, everyone knew I was his daughter.*

Vandal grinned. He didn’t doubt it. *Of course. I’m sure they knew all about the little Deering princess.*

*I was Richard’s girl, or little miss Deering,* Anna replied. *No one ever called me princess.*

*They should have,* he sent back with a grin, but it was oddly pleasing, to think that he was the only one that had ever called her that. After a moment’s consideration he added: *What did your father call you?*

There was a loud, metallic ring and Vandal looked up distractedly. It was the blood bank’s landline. Hardly anyone ever called that number, certainly not at night. It must be someone from inside the hospital that couldn’t be bothered to come down to the basement. He answered the phone with a monotone: “Santa Monica Medical Clinic, you have reached the blood bank, how may I help you?”

“I am glad to find that you are at your post,” Therese’s cold voice answered from the other side of the line. “At least for now.”

“O-of course I am, Miss Voerman,” Vandal stammered. Shit, she sounded angry.

“I have been getting complaints,” Therese said sharply. “About the blood bank being unmanned with _alarming frequency_.”

Vandal swore inwardly. “I’m sorry, ma’am,” he grovelled. “I have to go out sometimes, to find new donors.”

“I recall asking you not too long ago if you needed assistance,” she snapped.

“Yes, ma’am. I know, ma’am,” Vandal said hastily. “But that is really not necessary. _Please_ , I will do better in future.” It cost him disgustingly little effort to make his voice sound appropriately pleading and submissive.

“I will do as I see fit,” Therese snarled and Vandal held his breath. There was a frosty silence and then she said: “Why are you so averse to another ghoul joining the blood bank?”

“I… I really work best alone, ma’am,” he muttered. That had been completely true not so long ago.

“That may be,” Therese said coldly. “But your ‘best’ does not seem to be good _enough_.”

Vandal clenched his fist and kept silent. There was an annoyed sigh on the other end of the line.

“Consider this your final warning,” Therese informed him. “If I receive complaints again, there _will_ be consequences.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Vandal breathed. “Thank you.”

There was a click and the line went dead. Vandal put the phone down and exhaled. “Fucking bitch,” he grunted.

His cell phone buzzed on the counter and he grabbed it, seeing he had several messages from Anna.

*Anna my love. Or Annabel Lee.*

*You know, like the poem.*

*Vandal?*

*Customer at the bank?*

*Helloo?*

*I’m back,* Vandal replied hastily. *The Bitch called to question my work ethic.*

*Problem?* Anna answered immediately.

*Not yet, got to watch out though.*

There was no reply and after a while Vandal sent a prompting: *…*

*Sorry,* she sent back. *I was just thinking…*

Vandal waited.

*Therese has a lot to say for a dead bitch.*

He snorted. *Sure does.*

*We’ll have to do something about that.*

*Yeah? What do you suggest?*

*Mmm. Remind her how to be dead?*

*Cute.*

*I’m not kidding.*

*I know you’re not.* Vandal grinned widely. Anna had let some things slip several times that showed she wanted Therese to disappear as badly as he did. Well, perhaps not _as_ badly, but near enough.

*I’ve been thinking about it,” came another text.

He smiled. *Really, princess?*

*Yes. But it’s difficult.*

He sighed. No kidding. He had thought of a thousand scenarios to bring Therese her final death, but they would all more than likely end in his death as well. Still, the thought of Anna thinking the same thoughts, playing with the same desires, made him feel better. He turned the conversation back to Anna, away from Therese, but he could not quite shake the feeling that he would be watched very closely from now on. He would have to be more careful. Maybe they would have to take a risk and just _leave_. Just hope that Therese would be too disdainful to bother looking for them. On the other hand, she might be so angry she would hunt him down just to make an example out of him. And that wasn’t the only problem with that plan. Vandal was _almost_ sure Anna would go with him if he suggested they’d leave, but not _quite_. He sighed and absentmindedly deleted all their texts from his phone like he always did. Anna insisted on it.

♦♦♦

The sun was just setting as Anna walked to the clinic. It still surprised her how easy it was for her to work nights. She had never worked later than the evening shift back when she volunteered, but here in LA it just made sense. Not just because of Vandal – although she was by now quite capable of admitting to herself how far she was willing to go for him – it was also just easier to work at night in this clinic. It was less noisy, not so full of people making a nuisance of themselves.

Just when Anna was about to cross the street to the clinic, she noticed someone sitting slumped in a corner, against the wall of a building. She stopped and saw it was a girl, no older than herself. She was probably even a little younger. Involuntarily Anna turned towards her. The girl looked pale and weak. She was hugging her knees and staring at the ground. Her hair had been dyed bright red once, but it was faded and unkempt now. Anna took a step towards her.

“Hello,” she said pleasantly. “Are you alright?”

The girl raised her head and looked at her with hollow eyes. She was very pale and looked malnourished. Whoever this girl was, she had definitely been sleeping rough and had seriously neglected herself.

“Are you alright?’ Anna repeated.

Slowly, the girl shook her head. She didn’t say anything, didn’t even hold out a hand to ask for money, but she looked at Anna with a dull and exhausted desperation. Anna felt something stir within her. This girl didn’t look like a druggy or mental patient. More like a runaway, tired and lost. Anna crouched before her and smiled. She used her best one, the warm one that always made people look hopeful.

“What’s your name?” she asked.

The girl stared into Anna’s face and swallowed. “Heather,” she whispered.

Anna smiled a little wider, looking at the scared eyes behind the girl’s dirty glasses. This city was full of bums and vagrants, but they were nothing like this girl. For a moment she hesitated. Back in Philly, when she was about fourteen, she had found a box of kittens in a pile of trash near the docks. Their eyes had not yet opened and they screamed at her when she came near. One of them had been so pretty. Pure white fur marbled with grey that seemed almost blue… She had picked that one kitten up and had pushed the box with the others into the water. Anna smiled dreamily at the memory. That kitten had always been so loyal to her…

“What are you doing here, Heather?” Anna asked gently.

Heather opened her mouth, but no words passed her lips.

Anna smiled sympathetically. “My name is Anna,” she said. “I work at the clinic across the street. Would you like to come in?”

“I…” Heather stammered. “I don’t…”

“Come,” Anna said warmly, reaching out her hand. “I’ll see what I can do for you.”

If Heather hesitated at all it wasn’t long, because she took Anna’s hand almost immediately. Calmly Anna took her into the clinic and brought her straight to her lab. It was a good thing she had no mice there at the moment, that might have scared the girl.

As it was, Heather was beyond compliant. She sat down in the chair Anna pulled out for her with only a murmured: “Thank you.”

Anna talked to her in a comforting manner, but meanwhile she was eyeing her very critically. Heather was dirty and badly cared for, but she didn’t look really ill beyond the usual symptoms of neglect and exhaustion. Anna was sure she would clean up nicely.

“What on earth were you doing on your own out in the street like that?” she said kindly, taking out a bottle of vitae. “Let me give you something to get your strength up.”

She put a little vitae in a glass of water. Just a little would be enough. Heather was in a bad way, but she suspected that a lot of it was emotional. That wasn’t something _she_ could help with, but she would make sure she would get a bed in a place where there were people who could. She sealed the bottle and put it away again.

“Here you go,” she said, handing Heather the glass. “This will make you feel better.”

Heather took it silently, but gave Anna a meek look of gratitude. She drank and Anna saw the effect immediately. It was really remarkable how quickly the vitae worked, even if it took a while for the effects to reach their full potential.

Heather’s eyes widened and she gulped the water down greedily. Her dull eyes began to shine.

Anna smiled. “You feel better already, don’t you?” she said.

“Where did you get this?” Heather gasped, having swallowed every last drop. “Ah!” She grabbed at her chest and touched her lips, her eyes focussing frantically on Anna. “Are you-? Are you with _them_? Did they give it to you?”

Anna stared at her, frozen to her spot. What was she-

“Are you a ghoul?” Heather asked pleadingly, getting to her feet. “I am! I mean, I used to be.” Her lips quivered as if she was about to cry. “Do you have a master? I… I used to have a master. He sent me away…” Her eyes lit up. “Perhaps _your_ master can help me find him!”

Anna clutched her teeth and cursed inwardly. She _shouldn’t_ have pulled someone in from the street. Not in this godforsaken town full of _filth_. She should have known better.

“Please,” Heather begged, taking an eager step towards Anna.

“Sit down,” Anna ordered. This was a nightmare. “Don’t overexcite yourself,” she managed to add in a sweeter tone. She had to control this girl and _get rid of her_.

“Yes, sorry,” Heather muttered and she sat back down. She looked pleadingly at Anna. “But…you will help me?”

Anna looked away. She couldn’t stand those big, hopeful eyes.

“Please,” Heather begged. “At least tell me who you belong to. If…if he told you you could help people like me, maybe he’ll…” Her voice died away in hopeful desperation.

“I can’t,” Anna said, thinking feverously. “I want to help, I really do, but… I’m new myself. I don’t want to overstep my bounds.”

Tears filled Heather’s eyes.

“Do you want some more?” Anna suggested. “I shall give you some more.” She moved to the cupboard. “It’s a lot more potent when it gets injected straight into your bloodstream,” she said, grabbing a needle and a vial of ketamine. “It’ll make you strong enough to go look for your master yourself.”

“But I’ve done _everything_ to find him,” Heather cried pitifully. “He’s just… _gone_. He _left_ me. But I’ve _got_ to find him. I…I have to.”

“Alright, alright,” Anna said, her smile frozen on her face. “I’ll help you, but first let me give you some more. You are not well.”

“No,” Heather said. “No, I feel much better! I- I don’t want to be greedy. I want your master to know I am grateful.”

With the greatest of effort, Anna put the needle and bottle away again. She really didn’t want to have to physically fight this girl. She took a deep breath and made a decision. “Mistress,” she said, turning towards her again.

“What?” Heather asked, wide-eyed.

“Mistress,” Anna repeated calmly. “I belong to Therese Voerman.” The words burned disgustingly in her throat, but she did not show it.

“Oh…” Heather breathed. Anna thought she looked rather shocked, although she couldn’t imagine why. “Would…would she help me?” Heather asked shyly.

“I don’t know,” Anna said, doing her best to sound concerned. “I cannot take you to her without permission, but Vandal could talk to her. He runs the blood bank. He has been with our mistress much longer.”

Heather said nothing, she just looked at Anna with nervous hopefulness.

“Do you want me to take you to him?” Anna asked.

“Yes!” Heather said eagerly. “I mean… Do you think he’ll help me?”

“If I ask him to he will,” Anna said, locking the cupboard. “Come.”

Heather obediently got to her feet. “I did not know there could be multiple ghouls,” she said shyly. “To one master I mean.”

Anna glanced at her. This girl had not seen her regnant in how long? Weeks? Months? And _still_ she was like this. Anna was _disgusted_ , but in the midst of that disgust there was suddenly a burning admiration for Vandal. He must be so much stronger than she had ever given him credit for.

“Like I said,” she answered Heather, guiding her out of the lab with a hand on her back. “I am new.”

“But why…?” Heather asked and Anna saw the fear in her eyes. Did the stupid girl not know she was worthless, replaceable? She had been _abandoned_ for fuck’s sake.

Anna formed her mouth into a sad smile. “It can be lonely,” she said. “Vandal and I are better together.” All the best lies were varnished with truth.

“How can you ever be lonely when you’re with them?” Heather sighed. “When you can feel them inside you?”

“The mistress is away a lot,” Anna replied flatly.

“Oh,” Heather mumbled. “I’m sorry…”

Anna did not answer that. She led Heather downstairs to the hospital basement. If she was lucky Vandal had just begun his shift. If she was not, she would have to do this alone. He had been a lot more punctual lately, because of Therese’s threats. She just hoped this was also the case tonight.

“Let me do the talking,” she instructed Heather. “Vandal can be a little…impatient.”

Heather nodded. “Thank you,” she whispered.

Anna smiled at her and knocked on the door the blood bank. She felt a spark of relief when she heard movement inside. The door opened and Vandal looked out.

“Anna?” he said with a frown. “Why-” He saw Heather and stopped talking.

“Vandal,” Anna said, smiling deliberately at him. “This is Heather, she’s lost her regnant.”

Vandal’s eyes darted from her to Heather’s nervous face and back again. “Right…” he said slowly. “And what does the lovely Heather need from us?”

“Help,” Anna said, in a gentle, low voice. “She needs our help. Perhaps…the mistress can help her find her master.”

Vandal’s eyes widened a little and he stared at Anna. “The mistress…” he said. “ _Our_ mistress…”

“Yes,” Anna said, feeling the revulsion burn in her stomach like hot coals. “Surely she will help her if _you_ ask her.”

Vandal grinned and Anna knew he understood her. She stepped aside, allowing him a full view of Heather, who was nervously wringing her hands.

“Hello little Heather,” Vandal smiled. “Where did my Anna find you, then?”

Anna did not hear Heather’s stammered reply. She was too surprised by Vandal’s tone of voice. She had never heard him speak so melodically. ‘ _Little Heather.’_ She snarled inwardly. ‘ _My Anna_ …’

“If you’re regnant is still in LA and if he’s as important as you say he is, our mistress will know where to find him,” Vandal said pleasantly. “Won’t she?”

This was addressed to Anna and she refused to look at him as she answered meekly: “Of course.”

“Can you bring me to her?” Heather said eagerly.

“Not without permission,” he said. He grinned. “But don’t worry, we’ll put you up somewhere safe while I go talk to her.”

“Thank you,” Heather said, her shoulders sagging with relief.

Vandal closed the door to the blood bank behind him and walked ahead.

“Come on,” Anna said softly, encouraging Heather to follow.

Vandal looked back at them and when his eyes met Anna’s, he grinned. Anna looked back resentfully. He was enjoying this way too much. It was all she could do to keep her anger in check. Vandal held the door to the freezer room open for them.

“Would you please open the passage, Anna darling?” he asked smoothly.

“Yes, of course,” Anna replied passively. He had never called her darling. For some reason it was important to her that he used different words, it made all this easier to bear.

She guided Heather to the first freezer and opened the door. Silently she punched in the code for the hidden door and it swung open, making Heather swallow a gasp of surprise. Anna pulled the lever, making the door to the backroom open. She stepped in confidently and Heather followed. It took her only the time her eyes needed to adjust to the dark for her to get suspicious.

“Wh- What is this place?” she gasped. “What are those?”

“Comfy seats, wanna try one?”

Before Heather could turn around Vandal had grabbed her. She screamed and struggled, but that only made him laugh, he was way too strong for her to fight.

Anna flicked on the lights while Vandal dragged Heather to the nearest chair.

“Oh shut up you stupid bitch,” Anna spat, walking over to snatch one of her arms from Vandal’s grip and forcing it into the restraint.

“What are you doing?” Heather cried. “Let me go! You promised to help me!”

“I _did_ help you,” Anna snarled. “A little _advice_. When someone literally picks you up off the ground, _don’t_ repay them by _insulting them to their face_.”

Heather stared at Anna, overcome with horror, but she began screaming and kicking when she felt Vandal’s hands at her feet.

“Oh, she’s more feisty than she looks,” Vandal snickered. “That’s _always_ a good sign.” Gleefully he bound her feet together and strapped them to the chair.

Heather was still screaming and crying and Anna thought her head was going to split open with the ringing of it in her ears.

“Why are you doing this?” she sobbed. “Please! Let me go! I’ll go away, I won’t tell anyone. _Don’t hurt me._ ”

“Vandal, make her _shut up_ ,” Anna hissed. She couldn’t stand this a moment longer.

Vandal moved and Heather’s screams turned to choking as his hand closed around her throat. “Sorry, sweetling,” he grinned. “I’d listen to you sing all night long, but my princess likes the quiet…”

Heather sputtered and writhed, but Vandal squeezed harder and the more she fought him and her bonds, the quicker she used up her remaining oxygen. Anna watched, breathing heavily through her nose. The damn girl kept fighting.

“There we go,” Vandal smiled, when Heather’s eyes began to roll upward. He did not let go until she hung completely limp and unconscious in the chair.

“Thank fuck for that,” Anna hissed, leaning back against the counter.

Vandal looked up at her, enjoyment clearly visible on his face. “Where did you find her?” he asked curiously. “What happened?”

Anna rubbed her temples. Her anger had subsided somewhat, now she was mostly tired and on edge. “I found her outside on the street,” she said irritably. “Looking messed up and lost. I didn’t know she was like _that_.” She made a resentful noise. “I wasted a dose of vitae on her.”

“Mmm, I wouldn’t say wasted,” Vandal said, leaning towards Heather. “She smells sweet…” He turned to Anna with a wide grin. “You have excellent taste, princess.”

Anna wasn’t in the mood for his jokes. She glared at Heather with pure resentment. That stupid girl had ruined her whole evening. She took a deep breath and tried to compose herself. There were kittens to save and kittens to drown. Heather had lost her right to live, now she must drown. Anna opened her eyes, quite unaware than she had closed them in the first place, and found Vandal looking at her with a slanted head.

“You alright there, princess?” he asked.

“Yes,” she said and she smiled at him. She let out another deep breath. “God I’m glad you were here.”

“What would you have done if I hadn’t been?” Vandal asked curiously.

“I don’t know,” Anna admitted reluctantly. “I suppose I would have tried to get her in here on my own.”

“That would have been a lovely surprise,” he chuckled.

“If I had succeeded,” Anna said.

“Like you ever fail,” he said, blue eyes shining down on her.

She smiled. She really did love the way he looked at her like that.

Vandal looked at Heather and stretched his fingers eagerly. “Want to give me a hand?” he asked cheerfully.

“Sure,” she smiled and took the equipment Vandal handed her.

They both inserted a needle into one of Heather’s arms. Steadily her heart began to beat her blood out of her body and into the blood bags. Anna looked at Vandal as he checked the needles, tubes and bags lovingly. He took pride in his work, no matter how rash and careless he could be in other matters.

“Will she wake up?” Anna asked after a while, watching the girl’s face grow steadily paler.

“No,” Vandal said regretfully. “Her blood will drain too fast for that.” He grinned. “The human heart is such a diligent little worker. Give it an hour and a half and she’ll be drained completely dry.”

“So fast?” Anna said. She was surprised. She had never given it much thought.

“Oh yes,” Vandal said. “Especially with a thin little thing like her.”

Anna looked at Heather, blood draining from both her arms and wrinkled her nose at her. “Stupid girl,” she said contemptuously.

“I’m stuck here for as long as it takes to drain her. I have to change the blood bags,” Vandal said, suddenly wrapping his arms around her from behind. “Would you like to keep me company?”

She smiled. “That’s the least I can do, right?” she said. “After forcefully rearranging your schedule for you.”

He chuckled and pressed a kiss into her hair.

“On second thought,” Anna said. “Why don’t I stay here so you can go back to the blood bank? Keep the Bitch off your back.”

Vandal clearly didn’t like that suggestion much, but he made a resigned noise and nodded. “Alright,” he said. “I’ll come check on you in a while, okay princess?”

“Okay,” she said and she gave him a quick kiss on the lips.

After Vandal left, Anna sat down, staring at Heather with very mixed feelings. She was grateful this whole situation had ended so well, but she was still incredibly vexed. The blood was filling the bag bit by bit and Anna kept a close eye on it. It would be a waste if the bag got overfilled and started to spill, not to mention a horrid mess. As she sealed the full bag and closed it for a full one Anna could not help the dissatisfied frown on her face. The thought of this girl’s blood feeding filthy parasites offended her. Then again, she was a pathetic ghoul, being fed to vampires was probably bliss for her. Anna groaned. She had a headache. She still couldn’t believe that she had picked up a random runaway to save and she had turned out to be one of the filth. She couldn’t _stand_ this damn city. How could _anyone_ live here? You couldn’t turn around without bumping into a parasite. She wanted to leave. But she would not leave Vandal behind. He was hers now. ‘ _My princess.’_ That had been real. They were real. They _were_ better together. They were, and they were too good for this shithole of a place. They had to leave. No, they _would_ leave and Therese Voerman wouldn’t be alive to have an opinion on it.

♦

Anna was so lost in thought when he came to check on her and Heather that Vandal didn’t try to talk to her. Heather had gone into hypovolemic shock by then and was in a comatose state very close to death. Her heart was close to giving up completely and the blood did not pump out of her like it had before. Anna hardly seemed aware of this, she seemed to be working on autopilot. Vandal wondered if she was upset that they had to kill the girl. She didn’t seem angry like she had been when that cancer patient died. No, the look on her face was dissatisfied more than anything. Dissatisfied and absent-minded.

“I get what you mean now,” Anna said suddenly. “About not being able to get all the blood out. When her pulse goes it’s all down to gravity and that just isn’t enough. It’s rather wasteful…”

“Hm,” Vandal hummed in agreement.

“Would it help if you tapped into the femoral artery?” Anna asked.

Vandal grinned. He loved that she was even thinking about this. “Works partially,” he replied. “But it’s messy, digging around in someone’s thigh to reach it. Not really worth it, unless you feel like getting your hand dirty.” He grinned at her. “Get those perfect nails of yours all coated in blood.”

She smiled involuntarily. “You’ve tried it then,” she said.

“Princess, I’ve tried _everything_ ,” he assured her.

Anna shook her head with a tired laugh and leaned against him. Vandal pulled her closer against his chest and took her hands in his, feeling all her individual fingers. Her hands were so soft…

“You still thinking about me ‘getting my hands dirty’?” Anna asked and he felt her smile against the fabric of his shirt.

“Maybe,” he chuckled. “Can you blame me? I know what these hands can do. What I wouldn’t give to see them drenched in death for once…”

Anna stepped out of his embrace and gave him a tired half-smile. “Remember to remind me by the time you’ve got a birthday coming up,” she quipped.

He let out an elated laugh. Yes, that’s what they would be together. Anna would take the monotony of the mundane and paint it a bloody red. Murder for anniversaries. Torture for birthdays. Nowhere in the world would he be able to find so many contradictions united as in this one woman. But right now she was tired and put out, glaring daggers at a girl who was minutes away from death.

“I can finish up here,” he offered. “It’ll only be a few minutes' work.”

“Yes,” Anna sighed gratefully. “I want to go home.”

“Want me to come over later and tell you how much of her I managed to spill on the floor?” Vandal grinned.

Another weak smile. She nodded and gave his arm a squeeze on her way out. Vandal watched her go. It was a pity she was in such a bad mood. _He_ had enjoyed himself. With an appreciative grin he turned to the unconscious Heather.

“Isn’t she beautiful when she’s angry?” he asked her, kneeling beside the chair. “I’m sorry she wouldn’t stay to see your death.” He pressed his hand against her chest, feeling the absence of any heartbeat. “Luckily I’m right here…”

♦

Vandal arrived at Anna’s place the same time the sun did. As he walked up the stairs, her neighbour Mr. Ruiz was just walking down.

“Good morning,” he said.

“Good morning,” Vandal said and to his surprise he felt himself smile and asked: “Anna’s home right?”

“Yes, she is,” Mr. Ruiz said with a kind nod. “I heard that music of hers when I walked by.”

“Great,” Vandal grinned. “Have a good day.”

“Thank you,” Mr. Ruiz smiled. “And you.”

They both walked on and Vandal wondered where the hell that had come from. Well, Anna would have approved of it at least. He reached her door and heard the music too. Soft rock. It was always soft rock. Whenever Anna needed to relax but couldn’t, she played the old records of her father. Vandal rang the bell and Anna answered the door almost immediately. She was wrapped in a dressing gown and there was a pot of tea on the side table.

“You want some?” she asked, walking to the corner to turn off her old record player. Beside it lay a stack of records with band names Vandal didn’t recognize. The top one read Fleetwood Mac.

“No thanks,” he grimaced.

“Okay,” she sighed. Sitting down again.

So she was still ruffled. Vandal sat down beside her and gave her a placid look.

She grimaced and tried for a smile. “So, how much of a mess did you make?” she asked.

“Hardly any at all,” he chuckled. “You want to check my nails?”

He held out his hands and she let out a genuine laugh, pushing them away.

Vandal grinned at her. That was better. “Want to tell me exactly what happened this evening?” he asked. “I’m in the mood for a story.”

Anna put her tea aside and told him in increasingly frustrated terms what had happened and he listened without interrupting. She dwelled with disgust and resentment on how Heather had reacted when she gave her the vitae.

“I never thought I’d ever wish the vitae was more addictive,” Anna said scornfully. “But I did right then. Stupid girl outright refused another dose.” She sighed.

“But you didn’t need to sedate her after all,” Vandal grinned. “You delivered her straight to my door without a problem.”

“Yeah?” Anna said. “Did you feel my heart?”

“Mm, no…” he grinned. “How neglectful of me.” He leaned forward and rested his head against her chest, listening to her heartbeat. Anna laughed and he heard her laughter rumble under his ear.

She started raking her fingers through his hair and leaned back, forcing him to properly lie down. He stretched his legs across the couch and shifted his weight until he lay on top of her comfortably. He had no intention of moving.

“I would have guessed you to go cold and distant under pressure,” he muttered. “Can’t really picture you with a racing heart and trembling knees.” He chuckled.

“Did I look like I was trembling?” Anna said sharply.

“No…” Vandal said, trying to mollify her before she got angry. “That was my point.”

Anna made a nondescript sound and tangled her fingers into his hair some more. “I like pressure,” she said. “When I’ve created or directed it. I _hate_ things not going according to plan.”

What a crying shame. Vandal loved working without a plan. Chaos was so much better than order. To stay calm, create your own eye in the storm, while everything around you was going to pieces. There was hardly anything better. He supposed it made sense Anna would prefer to plan everything out, control every little detail. But he had seen her act beyond impulsively and she had proved she could think on her feet very well. Tonight proved that more than anything. He wondered how exactly Anna had pulled it off. Sure, Heather had been eager to believe whatever Anna told her, but she had put an amazing amount of trust in her for very little reason.

“What exactly did you tell the girl?” he asked, enjoying Anna’s scratches. Her words were still burning in his memory. “Did you tell her we were…?”

“Both Therese’s ghouls?” Anna supplied. “Yes.” She made a dissatisfied noise. “It was the best lie I could think of. I told her I was new…only here to be useful and keep you company.”

Vandal grimaced. He could not tell Anna that he had actually considered making that happen. That was one thought she would probably not forgive him for having. She had already felt his reaction, though, and now she expected a proper reply. Vandal slid his hands up the back of her shirt, distracting her a little. “What a pretty picture…” he mused. “Do you think that’s what would have happened if Therese had found us out…?”

“I would have killed myself,” Anna said flatly.

Vandal’s hands stopped for a moment. He was inclined to tell her that her life would no longer have been hers to take, but…knowing Anna… She probably _would_ have done it. She wouldn’t have fought like him, using what little control he had left to grab moments of hating Therese. No. She would have adored Therese and hated herself wholeheartedly, right up until she slit her wrists or overdosed on one of her drugs. The thought of her dying set off a chill inside him. Before he realized it, his fingers were digging into her back a little too forcefully and he had closed his eyes, trying to drive away the image of Anna sliding lifeless to the floor. He blinked. The chill inside his chest was spreading. He couldn’t seem to shake it. This was preposterous. He had her in his arms. He could hear her heartbeat. She was right here and she was his and _she would have just left him. No matter how much he wanted her to stay. No matter what he did to make her stay. She would have lied in his face. Smiled at him. Made him believe they would be in this hell together forever. And then, as soon as he turned his back, she would have destroyed herself and everything he ever wanted. Left him. Alone in the endless florescent lights. Surrounded by the droning of voices he didn’t want to listen to. With eyes staring at him that weren’t hers. Unable to-_

“I’m glad _you_ didn’t,” Anna said suddenly, bringing him back with a jolt.

“Didn’t what?” he asked, anxious she’d be able to feel his own heart racing all of a sudden.

“Didn’t kill yourself,” she said softly.

He swallowed. “Neither would you have,” he said. He didn’t believe it himself, but he needed it to be true.

There was a very long second of silence, before Anna replied: “Yes I would.”

The icy chill hit something explosively hot and evaporated into blinding anger. Vandal sat up abruptly and looked at her face. She was still lying back and her expression was calm and cast down. How could she look like that now? He was _burning_ and she was- She was…

With a tenderness exactly opposite to the feelings raging inside him, he took her hands and pulled them gently towards him until she sat upright. _She would go where he went. He would be where she was. He would give her no choice._ He ran his thumbs softly across her wrists. _She had come to him. She had stayed. She could never change her mind._ “So how would you do it then?" he cooed, his voice so smooth and melodic it hardly sounded like his own. “Slit these pretty wrists?” _Anna was his. His. His._ Lovingly he kissed the inside of her wrists, feeling her pulse against his lips. _Never. Never. His forever._ “Or…” he muttered, moving his hands slowly up her arms. “Would you just…” He traced a circle on her arm. “Stick a needle in your arm and go to sleep?” _Her skin forever soft. Her flesh forever warm. He would not give this up._

Anna stared at him with large, quiet eyes. Was she frightened? She _should_ be frightened. No, not of him. _Yes_. _Terrified of him_. His hands barely seemed his own as he carefully rested one against her neck and brushed past her lips with the other. _He would make her answer him._ “Or would you drink something?”

Anna looked almost mesmerized now. She wasn’t frozen. She was listening.

 _Yes. Listen to me._ “Something bitter…” he whispered. “To choke you from the inside out…”

She gave the minutest shake of her head.

No? _No? Was she telling him no?_ Or was she saying she wouldn’t do it? _He wouldn’t let her do it_. “What about a rope then?” he smiled. “Is choking from the outside better?” He swallowed the screams that were fighting to get out of his throat and ghosted his lips across Anna’s neck. She shivered and for a second Vandal wished she would run, scream. _Finally. Just_. _Flee_. Give him something to chase. Something to _do_ with this fire that had nowhere to go and was eating him up inside. But the chill came back at the thought of her running from him. It froze the blood in his veins and promised to freeze him in place. Keep him from hunting her. Keep him from hurting her. Keep him from _having her_.

“No,” Anna protested and Vandal realized he had drawn away from her, his hands sliding off her. She grabbed his hands and let go again, throwing her arms around him instead. “I wouldn’t do any of those things, because _you_ would stop me. You wouldn’t let me. You’d save me.”

Save her…

“Tell me you would,” she said urgently.

“Yes,” he said hoarsely, still cold and burning at the same time. “I would.”

“ _Yes_ ,” Anna said, digging her fingers into his shoulders. “And then I would ask you to kill me and you wouldn’t. I would _beg_. But you wouldn’t.”

“Never,” he breathed. No one would ever hurt Anna. Not him. Not her. No one.

“Then I wouldn’t be Therese’s,” Anna whispered. “I’d be yours.”

♦

Anna would have given anything at that moment to convince Vandal of the truth without having to convince herself. She did not know what to do except hold onto him and fight. She’d be his and he’d be hers and no one else’s. Not Therese’s, not even if all her blood was replaced with hers. But none of that happened. None of that would ever happen. That reality died with the stupid girl that had believed it long enough to be trapped by it. And Therese would die _just_ like that girl. Strapped down, slowly draining, suffering for what she was and what she had done. Anna would make it so. And then she and Vandal would leave. Because she did want to stay with him. He thought she didn’t but she did. She just _couldn’t_. Not like this. Not like he wanted her to now. But she would find a way. Therese would die. They would do it and they would leave. Because she- Because _he_ \- Because… Because she said so.

♦

Vandal could feel Anna shaking. Her face was buried against his shoulder and she held onto him with a sudden possessiveness that drove the cold from his body and quieted the searing heat to a steady warmth. A fog lifted from his mind and he glanced down at the girl stubbornly embracing him. She had been thrown off balance today. She had very nearly panicked and she had come to him. Heather had clearly believed everything Anna had said. She could have taken her to the back room alone. She could have taken her home. She could have solved this on her own. But she hadn’t. She had come to him. For help. Because she depended on him. Because she _trusted_ him. The warmth inside him stirred and Vandal began to laugh.

Anna raised her head and gave him a bewildered look.

He kept laughing. “You’re contagious,” Vandal grinned manically, taking her face in his hands. “You’re infectious, princess. You’re a goddamn risk to my health.” He laughed again and then firmly kissed her questioning mouth shut.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Forgive me Heather, I’m so sorry. If any of you had hoped that Anna wouldn’t want to kill an actual innocent, I’m sorry to disappoint you too, she’s an awful person and I will never forgive her. (Despite all that I really like this chapter, it was so emotional!)
> 
> Anna’s father was young in the seventies, so after some advice from my own dad Fleetwood Mac seemed a suitable music choice to me. He had pretty good taste for such a jerk of a guy. The song Anna was listening to when Vandal arrived was “Oh Daddy”, I think it suits her and her father well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBJ8b0DvyaY&ab_channel=TrixxyKatt


	15. Devil’s in the Details

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Content warnings:** None.
> 
> (Sorry for the late update, stuff got in the way. I hope you'll enjoy this!)

LA baked in the sun, making it rather impossible to sleep far past noon. When Vandal woke up it was one of the now exceptional days he woke up alone. By now he and Anna almost spent more time together than apart. Besides this bemusing fact, life had been uneventful the past few days. The icy chill had not come back again and neither had the scorching heat. There had been no highs or lows. Anna had even stopped experimenting with her vitae temporarily. There had just been… _them_.

He stretched out with a yawn and went to get dressed, looking at the mirror in passing with a feeling of estrangement. His reflection looked unknown to him. Feeling the differences inside him was one thing, seeing them reflected in his face was another.

If there had been anyone besides Anna that actually _knew_ him, they would have noticed how much he had changed over the past few months. Vandal had not been so very aware of it in the beginning, but he was now. Anna was not the only change in his life, Therese not the only one he was capable of treating differently than before. People were not quite so tiring now. He was less tired in general. _Life_ was less tiring.

He had just swallowed the last of what had to pass for his breakfast when there was a loud knock on the door. Vandal got to his feet with immediate suspicion. No one visited him except Anna and he wasn’t expecting her. He sauntered towards the door.

Another loud knock. “L.A.P.D., open the door.”

Vandal froze. The _police_. What the fuck did they want? Well, he had had too many run-ins with them to be stupid enough to keep them waiting. He opened the door and was greeted with the sight of a detective and a uniformed officer.

“Vandal Cleaver?” the detective asked.

“Yes,” he answered, in a neutral tone that might pass for politeness. “What can I do for you, officers?”

“We’d like you to accompany us to the station,” the detective replied.

Vandal smiled vacantly at them. Surely this wasn’t about that girl, what was her name, Heather? Anna had picked her up off the fucking street and she had clearly not been in a real home for a while. Who would care enough about a girl like that to even file a missing person’s report. But if it wasn’t about her, then what was it about?

“Mr. Cleaver?” the detective pressed sternly.

“Yes,” he said, pushing his thoughts aside. “The station. Well, that would be my pleasure, of course.” Never resist, always play along. “But can I ask what this is about?”

“We’ll explain all that at the station,” the police officer said.

Vandal went with them quietly. He was not going to call Therese unless he absolutely had to. That Heather girl was just a runaway and no one had seen him with her. There was no way they could connect her disappearance with him. Unless…Anna… If someone had seen Anna bring Heather into the clinic… Now Vandal was nervous. He tried not to show it and he kept his mouth shut, but he could not help chewing on the inside of his cheeks. The detective kept a close eye on him during the drive to the station and spoke to him once or twice. Vandal answered him politely, but asked no questions and made no small talk. That was rule number one in dealing with the police, only ever give them what they ask for, never more. He shouldn’t even mention Anna. If they didn’t know about his connection to her, he’d lead them straight to her and if they _did_ he still shouldn’t let on that he thought she had something to do with whatever they needed _him_ for.

They put him in an interrogation room, but they were rather polite about it. Vandal was sure they couldn’t have too much on him or they wouldn’t have bothered with the niceties. This was hardly a good sign through. It might just mean they wanted him to tell them about Anna.

The detective sat down opposite him while the officer stood in a corner, watching him. Vandal waited, hiding his impatience. The detective opened a file and gave Vandal a serious look.

“Do you know someone called Brian Glazer?”

Vandal only just managed to hide his surprise. This was about the _drug dealer_? Really? And why were they asking about this now? If someone had seen them going to or leaving the house at the night of the murder, they would have been questioned immediately. What could they have possibly found to make them come after him _now_? Finger prints? Surely not. That place was a dump, they’d be hard pressed to find an actual murder weapon in that mess, let alone finger prints. Besides, Anna had made him wipe down every damn surface they touched. Come to think of it, what about Anna? Had they brought her here too?

Despite all these jumbled thoughts he managed to answer the question without too much of a pause. “Name sounds familiar…” he said thoughtfully. “But I can’t be sure.”

The detective put a picture of Brian Glazer in front of him. It was a mug shot and Vandal thought he had looked a lot better with death on his face than with that cocky smirk on his lips.

“Sorry,” he said with a shake of the head. “Doesn’t really look familiar, but-” He tapped on the name and birth date printed underneath the photo. “-I _do_ remember that name. He’s a patient at the hospital.”

“He _was_ ,” the detective corrected him.

“Ah,” Vandal said. “That’s a shame…” He pulled a concerned face. “I suppose that your involvement means it wasn’t the cancer that did him in?” It couldn’t do any harm to let them know he knew some of Glazer’s medical history now that he had ‘remembered’ him. They obviously knew he knew _of_ him, better to keep that connection completely tied to his work. “Or is this a malpractice thing?” he asked. Like hell it was.

“You could say that,” the detective said snidely. “Depends what you call a knife to the chest.”

Vandal grimaced. He _mustn’t_ laugh. “That’s terrible,” he said. He didn’t trust himself to say more.

“ _You’re_ fond of knives,” the officer remarked. “Caught you with one three years ago.”

Vandal had thought he looked familiar. Bastard probably volunteered to be here this time. “Merely a hobby,” Vandal assured him.

“What about stun guns,” the detective asked. “You were carrying one those too, rather powerful model at that. Those another hobby of yours?”

“No, sir,” Vandal replied. “But LA’s a dangerous place…”

He sat through the rest of their questions placidly, waiting for the one that mattered: where he had been the night Brian Glazer had met his very timely and very bloody death.

“So where were you on the night in question?” the detective asked. “Because you were _not_ at work.”

“No,” Vandal said calmly. “I was with Miss Anna Deering at her place downtown.”

They were not surprised by that answer and Vandal did _not_ like the smug look on their faces.

“We thought you might say that,” the detective nodded. “Which is why my colleague is there now, to ask her the same question.”

“Efficient,” Vandal smiled. This was _good_. If they brought him to the station but questioned Anna at her home, they didn’t suspect her as much as they did him and that was probably down to his background. If they had been seen, they would both have been suspects. This was good.

The detective had obviously hoped for a little more of a reaction. “So you were with her all night?” he asked.

“And morning,” Vandal added.

“She’s your girlfriend?”

Vandal gave him an unpleasant smile and didn’t answer. _Girlfriend_.

“Right,” the detective sighed. “Why were you with her instead of at work?”

Vandal propped his chin up on his hand and looked at the detective. “We had a fight. She had gotten some bad news from back home and I did _something_ to upset her further.”

The detective smiled condescendingly and Vandal pretended he didn’t see that. If he wanted a relationship story Vandal would give him one.

“So instead of settling for the silent treatment for the rest of the week I went after her,” he continued. “Accidentally woke up her neighbour banging on her door in the middle of the night.”

“When was this?” the detective asked, while the officer took notes.

“Two in the morning?” Vandal said indifferently. “I’m not very good with times. Anyway, she let me in – eventually – and I apologized. She chose to accept my apology, which meant I stayed the night.”

“And when my colleague asks Miss Deering she’ll tell us the same story?” the detective said.

“Her version will probably be a lot longer,” Vandal replied. “But yes, she will.” He grinned. “Unless she’s still mad at me.”

The detective frowned at him, but made no reply.

“I’m really sorry about Mr. Glazer,” Vandal said insincerely. “But I really had nothing to do with it.”

“Hm,” the detective hummed. “And why did you access his patient file on your work computer just _before_ you left the clinic in the middle of your shift?”

Vandal blinked. That was what this was about? There hadn’t been a witness or some other evidence at the crime scene? It was just that someone decided to actually pay attention to stupid details for once?

“Mr. Glazer has a rare blood type,” he replied. “I wanted to see if the treatment he received depleted my stock.” _He_ always paid attention to details. Brian Glazer might have been common as dirt, but his B minus blood was not.

“Don’t you have separate files for that?” the detective asked critically.

“Of course,” Vandal smiled. “But no one likes administration. Certainly not my lifesaving colleagues.”

The officer made some more notes. Vandal watched the detective silently. They would probably want to keep him here until he had heard from his colleague. It was better not to object. Right now it seemed like they really didn’t have anything to go on except the fact that he looked at a file that he had every right to access. He repressed a smile thinking of the detective trying to interview Anna. If he had woken her up he was in for a treat.

♦

As a matter of fact the detective hadn’t woken Anna up. She had been awake, just. Now she was sitting on her couch while the detective sat opposite her in a chair and a female police officer stood quietly by the door.

“I’m still not following you,” Anna said, making an effort to change her irritation into endearing concern. She did _not_ appreciate the police showing up like this without a warning. And for that lowlife drug dealer too. Didn’t they have anything better to do? They still hadn’t told her it _was_ about him though and she shouldn’t let on that she knew. She tried again to sweeten her voice: “Did something happen?”

“I just need to know where you were that specific night, miss, that’s all,” the detective said patiently.

“Well, I was at work until… One twenty, one thirty in the morning?” Anna replied. “I had a bad shift. One of the patients doctor St.Martin asked me to do some tests for didn’t make it…”

“I’m sorry,” the detective said, sounding suitably feeling.

Anna smiled thinly and shook her head. “And then I got some awful news from a friend back at home and then I had a fight with Vandal and by that time I was really ready to go home, you know.”

“That would be Vandal Cleaver?” the detective asked.

“Yes,” Anna said. “I got upset over something he said and went home, but he came after me and we made up.”

The detective gave her an attentive look. “What’s the nature of your relationship with Mr. Cleaver?”

Anna swallowed her first three replies and settled on a flustered, shy look. “I don’t want people to gossip,” she mumbled.

The detective smiled sympathetically. “So he followed you after you left work, when did he arrive here?”

“Two fifteen?” she answered. “I wouldn’t let him in at first, I was still angry. I’m afraid we woke up Mr. Ruiz next door. Very embarrassing.”

“Woke him doing what?” the detective enquired.

The anger that flushed Anna’s cheeks could pass for embarrassment very easily. “By arguing on the doorstep,” she said. “Vandal got impatient when I didn’t let him in. I _did_ apologize to Mr. Ruiz the next day.”

The detective smiled and Anna looked away. This was _insufferable_.

“I’m sorry miss, I didn’t mean to embarrass you, but I’ve got to ask these questions,” the detective said. “So your boyfriend stayed the night?”

Anna forced herself to look at him. “Yes, he did,” she said. “Like I said, we made up.”

“And when did he leave?” the detective asked.

“The next morning…a little before twelve,” Anna replied, regaining her composure again. She looked up at the police officer by the door. “Are you sure you don’t want some tea or coffee?”

“No thank you,” she smiled and Anna smiled back.

“So you’re saying Vandal Cleaver was with you from two fifteen a.m. until twelve the next day?” the detective summed up.

“Yes,” Anna said. She turned on the worried frown again. “Wait, is this about Vandal? He isn’t in trouble, is he?”

“Just part of a larger investigation, miss,” the detective said reassuringly. “Tell me, do you know a Brian Glazer?”

“I’ve heard Paige mention a Mr. Glazer. A patient of hers I think, but I don’t know anything about him.”

“Paige?” the detective asked.

“Paige Matthews,” Anna replied. “A nurse at the clinic.”

“But you have never met him?” the detective said, glancing at her.

“No,” Anna said. “At least not knowing it was him. My patient contact is fairly limited.”

“Has Mr. Cleaver ever talked to you about him?” he asked.

Anna shook her head. “I cannot imagine why he would, Vandal doesn’t treat patients directly.” She gave the detective a wide-eyed look. “Did something happen at the hospital? With Mr. Glazer I mean?”

“Mr. Glazer was found dead some time ago,” the detective replied calmly. “We are pursuing several lines of investigation. His being treated at the hospital is one of them.”

“Oh, how awful,” Anna breathed. “Oh, Paige will be sad… When treating a patient you never think they’re going to get hurt by something you _aren’t_ treating them for.”

The detective nodded and noted some more things down. Anna patiently sat through the remainder of his questions. It was clear they suspected Vandal, not her, but she couldn’t find out why. Her questions about him were carefully avoided and she didn’t dare press him further. Eventually the detective rose, smiling and thanking her for her co-operation.

“Of course,” she said. “I am sorry I could not be of more help.”

The detective and the officer took their leave and left Anna thoroughly rattled. She was quite capable of dealing with authority figures, but to have them sprung on her when she was hardly half an hour out of bed was too much. She sighed. They had probably interrogated Vandal at the same time and probably not with the same courtesy they had extended to her. Worriedly she rubbed her temples. Anna was still standing in her hallway and she suddenly heard the voice of the detective in the corridor. She listened closer and heard Mr. Ruiz answer him: “Yes, the pale looking guy from the hospital she works at. I saw him. Must have been, two in the morning? Miss Deering woke me up earlier with her crying and when I heard the banging on the door I thought something might be wrong, but he had only come to check up on her.”

“Do you know if he stayed the night?” the detective asked.

“I should hope so!” Mr. Ruiz laughed. “After coming all this way.”

The detective pressed him for an answer and he replied: “Well his car was still outside when I left the next morning. They both work nights you know, always in and out at odd hours that girl. Car was still there when I came back again but Miss Deering must have been out during that time because she brought me flowers a little later. To say sorry. She’s a sweet girl, always finds time for a chat even though she works so hard.”

“Alright, thank you Mr. Ruiz,” the detective said.

“No problem,” Mr. Ruiz hummed.

Anna listened until she had heard the footsteps descend the stairs and took a deep breath. She smiled. _Always_ be nice to your neighbours.

♦

When they finally let him go Vandal declined being brought home and decided to walk. He texted Anna as soon as he was round the corner. Instead of messaging back, she called him.

“What the hell was all that about? I was afraid to contact you first!” she said. “Where are you?”

“Just got out of the police station,” Vandal said and he chuckled. “Did they wake you up, princess?”

“No,” Anna replied impatiently. “Vandal, _why_ are they investigating you for this?”

“Cause I looked at the guys file,” he grinned. “That’s all.”

“That’s it?” Anna said incredulously.

“That’s it,” he assured her.

She made an annoyed noise and Vandal laughed.

“What did you tell them?” he asked.

“That I had a bad day at work that ended in us having a fight and me going home early. And that you followed me home to make it up to me and that you stayed the night and following morning. You?”

“The exact same thing,” Vandal grinned triumphantly. “It’s as if we planned it, princess.”

She sighed, clearly more relieved that she would like to admit.

“Are you working tonight?” he asked.

“No,” she replied. “Are you?”

“Of course,” Vandal grimaced. “And I’ll have to tell Therese that I was questioned by the police. She’s bound to hear about it eventually and she _doesn’t_ like being left out.”

There was a strange silence on the other end of the line and Vandal frowned. “Princess?”

“Hm? Yes, I’m here,” Anna replied distantly.

“You want me to come over after my shift?” he offered.

“No, I’ll come to you,” she said. “If you’re late, I can just let myself in,” she added teasingly.

“You do that,” he chuckled. “And don’t worry about the police, princess. I’ve seen them when they’re _really_ interested and they weren’t.”

“Alright,” Anna said, still sounding a little absent-minded. “See you tonight.”

Vandal hung up and walked home, thinking of what to say to Therese. As long as he made it clear that he had handled it already she probably wouldn’t care too much. He wondered how much the police showing up had scared Anna. She hadn’t sounded scared on the phone, rather annoyed, but she tended to blur emotions together when she didn’t agree with them so it was hard to tell. Well, he’d find out tonight.

♦

Anna was already at his place by the time he got back. The sun was rising in the east, but Anna had drawn all the curtains and was lying stretched out on his couch. A bottle of red wine was standing on the coffee table to breathe.

“Hm,” Vandal chuckled. “Start the day with a police interrogation, end it with a glass of good wine and a pissed off woman, what more could a man want?”

Anna looked up at him from her reclining position and said: “I am not ‘pissed off’,” with such a nettled face that Vandal laughed out loud.

He moved towards the couch and Anna retracted her legs so he could sit down on one end. As soon as he had, he grabbed one of her ankles and made her rest her feet on his lap. He ran one hand up her leg while he poured two glasses of wine with the other.

“I like it when you’re angry with someone other than me,” he informed her. “It gives me the opportunity to admire it better. Who do I have to send a thank you note to? Not the police I hope.”

Anna pulled a face. “The police didn’t just question _us_ ,” she said. “They questioned a lot of people at the hospital about you too. And apparently they had quite a lot to say.”

Her eyes were glittering angrily and Vandal appreciated the sight without saying a word.

“So this afternoon my _supervisor_ called me,” Anna said resentfully.

Vandal held a glass of wine out to her and she took it and took an angry sip.

“About what?” Vandal grinned. “Did he suddenly take offence to your strange office hours?”

“No,” Anna seethed. “He asked about the _validity of my research_.” She was seething.

Vandal laughed. “That moron wouldn’t know validity if it was eating away at his internal organs. Anyway, he doesn’t even understand your research.”

“Didn’t stop him from asking if our _involvement_ was going to have a negative effect on it.”

Vandal gave her an amused look. “Our involvement?”

“His words,” Anna sniffed.

Vandal took a sip from his glass. He enjoyed red wine much more since he was free from Therese. “So he’s a jerk,” he smirked. “Breaking news.”

“Just what I fucking need,” Anna fumed. “A bunch of men barging in to tell me about my own relationship! The _nerve_.”

“Oh?” Vandal said, grin widening. “What did he say? Anything you didn’t agree with? And if he called it our involvement is it you that’s calling it a relationship?”

“No, that was the police,” she said sourly.

“Ah,” Vandal chuckled. “And what did _they_ say?”

“What does it matter?” Anna snapped.

“Now, now,” Vandal grinned. “Don’t start a fight with _me_. You were being deliciously angry with _other_ people. Besides, I thought we were going to have the relationship talk?”

“Shut up,” Anna grumbled and she pulled her feet off Vandal’s lap and sat up straight.

“If you want to change to fighting and making up and out instead, that’s fine with me,” Vandal teased. “But I hear communication is the key to any _relationship_.” He just couldn’t resist.

Anna clunked her glass down and got to her feet, ready to leave.

Vandal caught her hand to stop her. “No, no,” he grinned, putting his glass away. “Let’s do this. Let’s figure out what to tell your fucking waste of space supervisor next time he brings it up.”

Anna gave him a short-tempered look, but allowed herself to be gently pulled back onto the couch.

Vandal drew her a little closer and fixed his eyes on hers. “So what have we got?” he said. “Apart from two people who lied to the police about ending someone’s worthless life and enjoying it immensely.”

She didn’t smile. Not yet.

“Come on, princess,” he coaxed. “Help me out here. What am I?”

“Annoying,” Anna suggested. Vandal smirked at her and this time she did smile. “Sneaky,” she continued. “Attractive. And way _way_ stronger than anyone around you realizes you are.”

“Hm,” Vandal chuckled. “How about: a misanthropic former blood addict who has never been able to stand women he couldn’t pay to fuck off as soon he was done fucking them.”

Anna raised an eyebrow.

“And yet,” he smirked. “Here I am.”

She didn’t reply to that, instead she picked up her glass again and hid her face in it.

“And you…” he said, still looking at her. “You’re a gorgeous, _ruthless_ woman who has convinced the world she is instead a merciful one, that refuses to sleep with the people she sleeps with.” Another smirk. “And yet…here you are.”

“How romantic,” Anna scoffed.

“Fuck romance,” Vandal said, leaning towards her. “You’re my new addiction. You’re the one exception to my universal hatred. You told me once that you wanted me and that you never worried about why you wanted things. Well, I want you and I know why. It’s because you’re the damn definition of perfection.” He took a deep breath. “You wanted me and now you’ve got me, but the price is that I want you back…and I’m not letting you go.”

Anna looked at his face, inches from hers. This was not the same girl he had met all those months ago in the break room and he was not the same guy. He brought her hand to his face.

“I’ll kill whoever you’d like to see dead,” he said. “But more importantly…I’ll spare who you want me to spare.”

He kissed her fingers and a slight smile appeared around her mouth.

“I’m willing to let you save all of goddamn humanity,” he said gravely. “As long as I can have you.”

Anna looked into his eyes and Vandal waited for her reply. He didn’t care what it was as long as it meant that she would stay with him. He saw the shadows of distant emotions flicker in Anna’s eyes. Whatever she answered, it was done now. He had said it out loud and he’d never let her go now. He didn’t even know what he wanted her to say. Didn’t know what he wanted to hear. Except…proof? Proof that she wanted him too. Something that meant that she’d stay. Something that-

“I know how we can kill the Queen Bitch,” she said.

Vandal grabbed her face, pressed her down onto the couch and kissed her hard. Anna kissed back, squirming underneath him until he broke away.

“That’s the most romantic fucking thing I’ve ever heard,” he growled and he sank his teeth into one of her favourite spots on her shoulder.

Anna gasped and clawed at his back. He bit down harder.

She whimpered and panted: “Don’t you want to know how?”

“Oh yes,” he muttered, grabbing handfuls of her hair and trailing kisses and bites up and down her neck. “God yes. Tell me how.”

“We want her alive,” Anna said, making an effort to speak coherently. “So we can drain her and preserve her blood.”

“Every last drop,” Vandal chuckled madly.

“There’s only one way,” Anna moaned, bucking her hips into Vandal’s. “We have to stake her, paralyse her, so we can safely drain her.”

Vandal imagined Therese, helpless, in a sterile room, her blood being syphoned away slowly. Black and red flashed in front of his eyes and he grinded his hips against Anna’s, ripping open her blouse. He resisted the urge to kiss her again. He wanted her to keep talking. “Go on,” he grunted.

“We can’t fight her at full strength,” Anna said breathily. “We’d have to weaken her first.”

“And how do we do that, princess?” Vandal growled into her neck.

“We poison her,” Anna smiled.

Vandal raised himself up a little to look at her. _Poison_ a vampire? “How?” he asked.

“We poison the blood, we poison the bloodsucker,” she said, a dark smile as visible in her eyes as it was around her mouth.

Vandal’s face fell. He shook his head. “She’d never drink it,” he said. “They can smell bad blood a mile away.”

Anna smiled a little wider and slipped a hand under his shirt. “They can smell diseased blood,” she said slowly. “But they can’t sniff out healthy blood that’s been infused with a virus. Especially not if it’s just the blood _plasma_ that’s been tempered with. The blood smells good, so they cannot tell what’s mixed in with it. At least not until it’s too late…”

Vandal looked at her twinkling eyes and felt a rush of triumph. “You’ve done this before…” he said, a grin slowly spreading across his face.

“Just some experiments,” Anna said, affecting an innocent smile. “A vampire’s body may be stronger than a human’s, but it can still be attacked and diseases attack it from the _inside_. Finding out which ones are actually effective took some time, especially since I can’t use anything that deteriorates the vitae in _their_ blood. But by now I’ve found several different nasty flavours that serve my purpose perfectly.” She grinned. “Some make them dizzy, some make them hurt, most of them make them puke their undead guts out.”

Vandal lunged at her neck again, but she grabbed his face and pulled him to her mouth. She kissed him hard and then pushed him away and held him at arm’s length.

“But this time it will be so much easier,” she laughed. “Because she’s _expecting_ blood from you.”

Vandal laughed deliriously. “ _Years_ ,” he growled. “Years of catering to the Bitch and now _finally_ , I’ll get to do her in.”

Anna giggled. “I’ve got some vicious little viruses and bacteria ready to go, as soon as you’ve picked a suitable blood source,” she told him.

He gave her a surprised look and grinned even wider. “Is that why you stopped experimenting?” he asked. “Because you were too busy with this?”

“Maybe,” she grinned back. “Some of these specimens are rather hard to get…”

“Sneaky little princess,” he hummed, sliding his hands up her skirt.

Anna moaned appreciatively. “We’d have to get her to drink it with us near enough to take advantage of her indisposition though,” she mused. “You think that would be a problem?”

“Not if I get her something extra tasty,” Vandal grinned. “Wait for a bleeder with a pedigree.”

“Hm,” Anna said. “Won’t that be a little risky? Valuable people are missed.”

“Sure they are, but luckily they are also likely to indulge in vain altruism to make themselves feel better about their useless lives.” He chuckled. “Forgotten that we actually get some of our blood via donations, had you?”

She laughed and tried to bite his neck, but he held her down by the wrists grinning down on her. “ _I_ donated blood,” she reminded him.

“You did…” Vandal said. He remembered that moment more clearly than most. It was the first time he had touched her.

“What did you do with it?” Anna asked suddenly.

“With your blood?” Vandal said, playing with her hair. “Put it in the hospital’s stock. I didn’t sell it.”

Anna smiled with large, twinkling eyes, but before Vandal could ask her what that look was for, she said: “So if you get some extra delicious blood, Therese won’t be able to resist drinking it?” She grinned. “Will she gulp it down in front of you? Poisoning herself before your very eyes?”

Vandal’s eyes darkened and he smiled widely. She really did have a way with words. “I know her taste,” he said. “Better than she thinks I do. I’ll get her something she won’t be able to keep her undead claws off.”

“Well,” she teased. “When you’ve found something suitably fragrant you’ll have to come up to my lab and pick what you want me to put in it. Something that will eat her insides? Something that will burn her icy flesh?”

Vandal growled, but instead of kissing Anna like she wanted him to, he abruptly got off her and stood up. He grinned down at her, and chuckled as she sprawled out on the couch and pouted at him.

“Can we go do it now?” he asked eagerly and he slid his tongue across his teeth.

“No,” Anna laughed, sitting up. “We need to prepare for this.”

“I thought you’d say that,” he said. “In that case.” He grabbed her and threw her over his shoulder, making her squeal with laughter. “I guess there’s something we can do to kill time,” he smirked and carried her to the bedroom.

He made her scream. He made her beg. And he promised to give her whatever she wanted as long as she told him in terrible gruesome detail _exactly_ what they were going to do to Therese.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welp, I suppose this is the beginning of the end...in more ways than one.
> 
> Poor hard-working police officers, poor innocent Mr. Ruiz...
> 
> (By the way, there _is_ a missing person’s report for Heather of course. It was filed by her grandma as soon as she mysteriously dropped out of college and simply disappeared. But that would be almost a year ago now…)


	16. One Last Time

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Content warnings:** Self-inflicted harm, vomiting.

It was almost impossible for Vandal to think of anything but Therese’s death now. His impatience was close to driving him insane. He had wanted this for _so_ long. The aching inside him was almost unbearable. Still, there was a part of him, however small, that still didn’t quite believe it would happen. Ghouls did not kill their regnants. But he was no longer her ghoul. He was no longer a ghoul at all. He was something new. Something better. He belonged to himself. _He belonged to Anna_. Yes, yes, but she belonged to him in turn. _Did she?_ Yes… _but not like he belonged to her_. Wasn’t that better? She stayed with him because she _wanted_ to. Because she _needed_ to. He could keep it that way. He _would_ keep it that way. But not here. Not in this dump. Not under Therese’s cold gaze. Destroying her meant keeping Anna. With Therese gone he would finally be free. Truly free. Free to leave this place. _With_ Anna. Yes, Anna would possess him more than Therese had _ever_ done.

“You’re awful quiet,” Anna said, startling him out of his thoughts.

“Mmm,” he hummed. “Just enjoying watching you play with weapons.”

Anna smiled. She was practicing loading a crossbow. Heavy, wooden arrows were very effective stakes and this way they didn’t need to be in reach of Therese to paralyse her. She would have to learn to aim it very accurately though. Miss a vampire’s heart by even a little and the stake would do nothing but secure your immediate death. Vandal smirked without realizing it. Anna handled the heavy crossbow with the same elegance as she did her needles. They had decided it should be Anna that staked Therese in the heart, not him. He had to deliver the infected blood to her and see to it that she drank it. Anna was confident it would weaken her for long enough to give her time to confront and shoot her. The thought alone made his heart pound. _Anna_ bringing down Therese. It would be glorious… But there was so much room for error. One little mistake and they’d both be dead. He shivered.

“There’s got to be an easier way of doing this,” Anna muttered to herself, dropping one of the arrows.

“Anna,” Vandal said suddenly and she looked up.

“Yes?”

“Have you ever considered taking the vitae yourself?” he asked.

Anna’s hands stopped moving and rested idly on the crossbow for a moment. She looked conflicted and even after a long silence there came no reply.

Vandal sat a little more upright and looked at her intently. Her face was nigh impossible to read, but she definitely didn’t like this question. But why _shouldn’t_ she take the vitae? Become like him. She’d be safer. Why had he never thought of this before? It made _sense_. Why should she be human, weak and aging? Why should she not be like him? “Well?” he prompted.

“I…” She sighed, walked over to the chair opposite his and sat down. “I have considered it,” she said. “But I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

“Why not?” he frowned.

She shifted uncomfortably. “I don’t… I don’t want to become-”

“Like _me_?” he growled, a spark flashing in his blue eyes.

“ _No_ ,” she said firmly. “…dependent.”

“You mean _addicted_ ,” he snapped. “Is that what you think I am?”

“If I had meant addicted I would have said so,” Anna said, not shrinking back for his anger. “You are not addicted Vandal, but you _are_ dependent.”

“Dependent on _you_ ,” he growled. “Just how you like it.” Her words, the expression on her face, they stung.

“Dependent on the _vitae_ ,” Anna said emphatically. “Dependent on the harvesting of parasite blood. Dependent on a _limited supply_ of something that is quite hard to manufacture.”

Vandal felt his anger subside a little. Was she afraid they’d run out? That there wouldn’t be enough for the both of them? “And wouldn’t the benefits be _worth_ the dependence?” he said.

She glanced at him and looked away again.

“If you think they aren’t, why did you never ask me to stop?” he demanded to know. This was ridiculous. Why had they never talked about this? Why had he never asked her? She could _not_ have such a value for humanity that she’d actually _want_ to live with its weaknesses.

“You couldn’t stop,” Anna said dismissively. “Therese would notice the change.”

“Don’t avoid my question,” Vandal growled.

Anna looked into his face. “I never asked you to stop because I knew you wouldn’t do it anyway,” she said.

“Do you _want_ me to?” he pressed.

“What does it matter,” she said irritably.

“ _Answer me_ ,” he snapped.

“ _No_ ,” Anna said, anger flaring up in her own face. “I _don’t_ want you to stop. I want you to stay the way you are now.”

Vandal looked at her with grim satisfaction. “Now we’ve settled that, why won’t you take some yourself?”

A veil of sarcasm passed across her face and she snarked: “Ah, so you don’t want _me_ to stay the way I am now.”

“That is _exactly_ what I want,” Vandal said urgently, leaning towards her in his chair. “And that’s what your vitae would do.”

Anna pulled a face and Vandal recognized the war of conflicting desires on her face. She had looked like that so often before, but lately it had become increasingly rare.

“Humanity is full of mistakes, princess,” he coaxed. “And _you_ figured out how to correct them.”

She smiled faintly.

“You’re already different from all the others, Anna,” he said. “You’re better and you know it. If you’d only use your own invention, you could be like that forever.”

“Think you can flatter me into compliance, Mr. Cleaver?” Anna smirked.

No. He thought he could convince her to give in to the side of herself that he liked best. There was no way in hell that Anna didn’t see the attraction of eliminating the constraints of human life. That was all she ever wanted, right? No disease. No pain. No frail bodies betraying the brilliant minds. Dependence. Addiction. What did it matter? Perhaps comparisons to her mother were holding her back here. But this was the exact _opposite_ of that. This wasn’t addiction, it was completion. It was correcting the mistakes of nature.

“You don’t realize how vulnerable you are, princess,” he said suddenly. “You’re skipping barefoot between bear traps, surrounded by monsters on every side…”

The teasing look had drained from her face, but she didn’t look like she was about to give in.

Vandal gave her a frowning look and shook his head, turning away. “Just…consider taking some before we go to get rid of Therese,” he said. He couldn’t risk anything happening to Anna just because she was too stubborn to accept her own salvation.

The expression on Anna’s face changed. It passed from discomfort to a self-satisfied smile that was only one twitch away from a grin. “You’re _worried_ about me?” she asked.

Vandal scowled at her. What the fuck was that supposed to mean? As if that was a damn revelation.

“If you only wanted me to take the vitae to protect myself, you could have just said so,” she said. She grinned at his cross expression. “You do!” she laughed. “You want me to take the vitae so I won’t get _hurt_.”

“Look,” Vandal said bluntly. “I told you. You are the first person in this goddamn shithole of a world I can stand. You thought I was being cute when I said I was never letting you go? I fucking meant it.”

Anna laughed, but _he_ wasn’t laughing.

“I didn’t sign up for this,” he spat.

“For what?” Anna asked, her smile faltering.

“This,” Vandal said, gesturing abruptly. “ _Caring_. I never fucking _cared_ about anyone and that’s how I like it.”

Anna looked at him silently.

“But you…” he said in frustration. “I want you, to be near you, to keep you. I want to do things to you, _for_ you… I want to make sure whatever you want happens and I want to hurt anyone that stands in your way. I want you to agree with me. Want you to _want_ me. Want you to _want_ to stay with me. All this crap that used to mean nothing. And I should be wanting to wring your neck for making me feel this way, but I don’t. Because the thought of hurting you fucks me up inside.” He gave her an angry look. “Why are you laughing?” he snapped.

“Because you’re so _angry_ ,” she laughed. “And I’m so _happy_.”

Vandal stared at her and she smiled, her eyes lighting up like grey stars.

“You think I don’t feel all that too?” she said. “Of course I do and I’ve stopped fighting it long ago. I won’t leave you, Vandal. I love you as much as you love me.”

He started, eyes fixed on her in shock. There was a crazy sort of happiness exploding in his ribcage, but at the same time something inside him recoiled. “I don’t believe in love,” he said bluntly. The moment those words left his mouth he knew he was lying.

Anna gave him an unconcerned shrug. “I understand that you don’t want to love me,” she said. “I didn’t _want_ to love you either. But that doesn’t matter now. It doesn’t change a thing.”

If he had known a way to contradict her, he would have, but Vandal was at a loss for words. Anna was still looking at him with that strange smile on her face. He had seen it before, but he had never understood that this was happiness. Her happiness. Tainted by a knowledge of the world that far surpassed that of other mortals, but happiness still. He did not know how to feel right now.

“You don’t have to tell me you love me,” she said calmly. “I know you do. And now you know I love you. I’m staying with you because I love you. And I’m not killing Therese because I want her blood, I’m doing it for you. And for us.”

Us... Vandal knew she was right, but he couldn’t allow it. The wanting, the feeling, the caring, the _belonging_ , that was bad enough. Good enough. Incredible enough. They couldn’t go and bring love into it as well. Not for him, not for them. “We’re good together, Anna,” he said. “But _love_. That’s a lie normal people tell each other.”

Anna regarded him calmly. “It isn’t a lie,” she said. “I loved Beth. I loved my father. Love exists. It just doesn’t do you any good in the end.” She smiled resentfully. “I never counted on you, in any of this…” She looked at him and the resentment in her face gave way to that tainted happiness again. “But I _do_ love you. And now we’re here…I’m not letting go either.”

A long silence followed.

“I’ll think about it,” Anna said finally. “Taking the vitae I mean.”

He nodded stiffly. Trying to push certain thoughts away and keep others as close as possible.

♦♦♦

“Have you thought of where you want to go, princess?” Vandal asked early one morning.

“Anywhere but here,” Anna sighed, sitting down on his lap. “You may be looking forward to ending Therese, _I_ am looking forward to getting _out of here_.”

He chuckled. “You’ll have to make up your mind about where to go first, though,” he said. “We’ll have a little time after killing the Bitch. They won’t notice her absence immediately. But by the time they do, we need to have disappeared off the face of the earth. Some other bloodsucker will want to take her place…”

“And take _you_?” Anna said, indignation flashing in her eyes. “Like hell they will.”

“Easy, princess,” he grinned. “That won’t happen. We’ll be long gone by then.”

She heaved another longing sigh and slanted her head thoughtfully. “I’ve travelled too much to look forward to it anymore,” she said. “Any place you want to go?”

Vandal hadn’t really thought about that. He had expected Anna to have wishes on that front. As long as he was with her it was all the same to him. Well, he would want to be in a place where he had the freedom to practice his craft… They’d need a fixed residence for that. A real home. “Some big city somewhere on the other side of the country,” he mused. “Some place where we can combine business and pleasure.”

“What did you have in mind?” she asked pleasantly.

“Oh, I don’t know,” he smirked. “You’ll find another hospital, I’ll find another blood bank… Between us we won’t have too much trouble getting enough supplies to set up a little business on the side. Perhaps we could run it out of our own home… You know, put the word out to the local bloodsucking community that there’s a pair of ghouls willing to offer a steady supply of nectar for a fair price. Once we’ve established a good reputation, we might begin running some promotional offers…”

A small smile had been steadily spreading across Anna’s face and Vandal grinned at her.

“You know, every tenth customer gets a special tour of the facilities…”

Anna laughed and threw her arms around his neck. “That sounds lovely,” she cooed. “We could get real house of our own. Something stately…with a big basement.”

“Hm,” Vandal chuckled and he pressed his mouth against hers. “Give me some time to fuck with Therese’s bank account after she’s gone and I’ll get you a fucking mansion if you like,” he grinned.

“Hmm, tempting,” Anna grinned, squeezing him tighter. “But let’s not make it too easy for the police, shall we?” She kissed him hard before he could answer that and he let the fantasy of having Therese finance their new life go.

“What about Philadelphia?” Vandal asked breathily, when they broke apart. Anna talked about home so often. She obviously still considered it her favourite place.

To Vandal’s surprise, her face fell. “No…” she said. “I can’t go back there... But I would like to go back to the east.”

“New York then,” he suggested. “Or Richmond or Washington. I don’t care, princess, whatever you choose is fine with me.”

“Such a gentleman,” she smiled and gave him another kiss. “I’ll look around…” She grimaced. “It would be _highly_ advantageous if it was a place where the hunters are more organized and a _little_ more open-minded.”

Vandal grinned. They didn’t need to be open-minded. He and Anna would open their minds for them.

“When we’ve found something and we’ve got everything ready for Therese, we’ll also have to think about how we want to leave,” Anna said thoughtfully.

“What do you mean?” Vandal asked. What was there to think about but where to go?

“Well,” Anna said. “I would prefer not to just run away and leave everything here unfinished. Wouldn’t look very good on my resume.”

Vandal let out a sharp, scornful laugh. “Are you even going to put this on your resume?” he scoffed.

“It’s the principle of the thing,” Anna said firmly. “I’ve never left _anywhere_ under disagreeable circumstances.”

“Fine,” Vandal grumbled.

“But your situation is more difficult,” she mused. “We have to consider what it’ll look like to the parasites. If you put in your two weeks notice neatly in time for your _mistress’s_ death that’ll look a little suspect, don’t you think? More importantly, she might find out.”

Vandal considered this. He doubted the vampire community would be particularly concerned about what happened to him. They’d notice his absence, but he didn’t think they would come looking for him or would bother to check _how_ he left. Therese finding out about his plans to leave was something they could absolutely _not_ afford to risk though.

“It won’t even occur to the bloodsuckers that I might have anything to do with Therese’s death,” he said decidedly. “Good little ghouls don’t hurt their regnants.” He grinned. “It’s unheard of.”

Anna laughed contentedly and he chuckled at her delighted eyes. She was going to _enjoy_ killing Therese, maybe even as much as he would.

“Me disappearing at the same time as Therese would only make sense to them,” he continued. “Either whoever killed her killed me too, or I fled.”

“Heartbroken and afraid for your little ghoul life,” Anna said in a singsong voice.

“Exactly,” he smirked. “And I would _love_ to just up and leave. Leave that insult of a clinic with a hole they’ll be scrambling to fill.” He’d love it even more if he could burn the place down on the way out, but he’d settle for this.

“Then it would make most sense if you left immediately and I followed you later,” Anna said thoughtfully.

Vandal frowned. He didn’t like the sound of that. “No,” he said, tightening his grip on her waist instinctively. “Don’t go changing the plans now, princess.”

“I’m not changing the plans,” Anna said. “Think about it. If you’re supposed to be fleeing for your life, it makes no sense if I leave at the same time. The parasites might not take notice, but the hospital will. Worse, the _police_ might.”

“So what,” Vandal grunted.

“It’s messy,” Anna said resolutely. “Doesn’t fit with the story. It makes much more sense if you run away and leave me behind to play the jilted lover.”

He still didn’t like it, but Anna had gotten a mischievous glint in her eye and he was willing to hear her out. “Tell me the story then,” he said, sitting back.

Anna hopped off his lap and pulled a dramatic face, clasping her hands to her chest.

“A _terrible_ thing happened,” she sighed. “Therese Voerman, the brightest star in Santa Monica’s nightlife, had _disappeared_. The police suspect foul play, but they have nothing to go on.” She twinkled her eyes at Vandal and he grinned. “Of course it doesn’t help that Miss Voerman’s _colleagues_ don’t seem too eager to talk to the police, or maybe the police aren’t too eager to talk to _them_. All is not well in Santa Monica. There are a lot of _irritable_ individuals around since the blood bank was forced to close its ‘donation window’ temporarily. Because the man responsible for running it, Vandal Cleaver, has disappeared as well. Not a trace of him to be found. He seems to have left without a moment’s preparation. As if something _made_ him leave.” She batted her eyes dramatically and sighed: “And his sudden departure simply _broke_ the heart of Miss Anna Deering. Ever since he left she just hasn’t been the same. She’s even talking of leaving the clinic once she’s finished with her current drug trial. What a _terrible_ loss to the hospital.” She let her exaggerated pout change to a grin and coaxed a crooked smile from Vandal’s lips.

“Alright, princess,” he gave in. “We’ll do it your way.”

Anna made a gratified sound and cosied up to him again. “Never underestimate the power of a good story,” she said. “And I _will_ come after you.” She pulled back a little to look him in the eye. “I’ll even take some vitae to get my strength up for our big day.”

Vandal’s dissatisfaction melted away instantly. “You will?” he grinned eagerly.

“Yes, I will,” she promised.

“Will you start soon, build up a presence in your body?” he pressed her.

There was a slight frown on her face when he said that, but she relented. “Alright,” she said. “If that will make you happy.”

“It would,” he grinned, pulling her closer. He didn’t care if she was only doing it to placate him. Once she had felt how _good_ it was, she wouldn’t want to do without it anymore. She’d be like him and it’d be perfect.

♦♦♦

Anna didn’t bring up the matter of the vitae again and Vandal didn’t press her. She did talk about the various places where they might go. Washington DC seemed to have her preference at the moment. The idea of house hunting made her a lot more excited than it could do for him. Anna seemed to look at it as a game.

“A wealthy young couple buying their first house,” she laughed at the end of  one of their conversations about Washington. “Two medical professionals with cash to burn and no kids, we’ll be every realtor’s dream!”

“So?” he said indifferently. He really didn’t understand why this got her so excited.

“So we’ll give them something to drool over!” Anna grinned mischievously. “Fix our clothes, our hair, our _attitude_. See how many of them we can get to fawn over us at once.”

“Honestly, princess,” Vandal said, starting to grin at her giddiness. “I’ll go with you if you want, but I’ll have nothing to say.” He couldn’t care less about the house…as long as it had a soundproof basement.

“But you’ll _have_ to say something,” Anna gushed. “You don’t expect your demure little wife to have an opinion of her _own,_ do you?”

Her desire to mess with people had something decidedly juvenile and Vandal smirked. “So we’re going to play husband and wife?” he said amusedly.

“If you like,” she winked. “For the Christians we _certainly_ will.”

“No…” Vandal chuckled, drawing her closer. Why not indulge her a little? “If we find a Christian one you’ll be the mistress I’m buying a second house for.”

Anna gave a delighted laugh and Vandal listened to her dream up different games, shamelessly encouraging her. She could fantasize all she wanted. He enjoyed seeing her forget to be serious and focussed. Until he found some blood good enough to serve as the vessel of Anna’s poison, they wouldn’t be able to make any sort of definite plans anyway.

♦

That soon changed, however, and considerably sooner than he had dared to hope. Right at the beginning of his shift on Wednesday a registered donor that hadn’t been by for a while returned to give blood. He was _perfect_. Vandal could barely contain his excitement. This guy was _exactly_ Therese’s taste. Overeducated, ridiculously healthy, genetically as close to perfect as you were likely to find. It was a bloody miracle this guy hadn’t been dragged into an alley and drained on the spot, Vandal thought. Luckily the donor didn’t try to talk to him, he probably wouldn’t have been able to form coherent answers. This guy wasn’t one for small talk though, he even brought a book to read.

“Thank you for your donation, sir,” Vandal simpered when they were done. “It’s _much_ appreciated.”

“We must all do what we can,” the man smiled. “Good evening to you.”

“Thank you, sir,” Vandal grinned, watching him go. This was it. Therese was going to _die_.

A familiar clicking of heels joined the footsteps of the donor in the hallway and Anna appeared in the doorway. He turned around to look at her with such abruptness that she started. “What’s gotten into y-”

Vandal grabbed Anna and pulled her through the door, kissing her hard on the mouth. “Did you pass that guy in the expensive blue suit?” he asked eagerly as soon as he let her go.

“Yes?” Anna said, with a bewildered laugh.

“He just gave me the blood we need,” he grinned deliriously. “It’s _perfect_.” He laughed out loud. “Where would the world be without useless charity?”

“You think it’s really good enough for what we have in mind?” Anna asked urgently.

“It’s just her type,” he grinned confidently. “ _I_ can nearly smell it through the sealed bag, she won’t be able to help herself.”

“Give it to me then,” she said with shining eyes. “I’ll get to work separating the plasma as soon as I can.”

Vandal took the bag and put it in her hand.

Anna looked at it and shook her head, smiling strangely. “This is what it’s all about,” she said scornfully. “This is what it’s all for. Their entire godawful undead lives…”

Vandal grinned. It had been what _his_ life had been about. His every waking moment had been devoted to the nectar of life. And he had enjoyed it. He truly had. But none of it had been for himself. It had all been for _her_. In servitude of her. Out of devotion for her. But no more. The next time he spilled blood it would be for him and him alone.

“I have to go to Therese the night after next,” he told Anna, licking his lips. “Can you have it ready by then?”

“Maybe…” Anna said doubtfully. “But I would rather not rush this.”

“No matter,” he grinned. “This can be our last farewell…before the final one.”

Anna smiled. “Have you decided, then?” she asked. “What do you want me to do to the blood? What do you want me to do to _her_?”

He looked at her, standing there, holding the bag of crimson blood in her dainty hands. Her eyes were full of wild, raging darkness, that she kept in check seemingly without any effort.

“Choose whatever makes her sickest,” he said darkly. “Whatever makes her _weakest_. I’d love to see her writhing in pain, but I can take care of that later. If you can weaken her enough to properly distract her…” He grinned. This was going to be magnificent.

“I can do that,” Anna grinned back at him. “I’ll make her puke her guts out.”

Vandal laughed and he was genuinely torn between giving reign to his excitement and dragging Anna into a corner, and sending her upstairs to start working that blood _immediately_. Anna made the decision for him, giving him a deep kiss full of mischievous glee and then hurrying out of the room, promising to keep him informed. It was going to take a few days at least though.

The wait was torture, but torture of the most wonderful kind. There was a tension in Vandal’s body that never left him anymore. The moment was so close now that he could almost taste it. He was not plagued by restlessness, however, oh no. Vandal had _never_ enjoyed working at the blood bank as much as he did now, knowing what Anna was doing upstairs in her lab. He talked incessantly to every vampire that came to his window, trying their patience until they threatened or snarled at him. They didn’t want anything from him except the lifeblood of his fellows. The essence of the species he was selling out. But they had _no idea_. He could have been poisoning them all. A little help from Anna and the precious nectar they so craved would betray them. Vandal spent most of his time lost in fantasies about their fear and bewilderment. Perhaps it wouldn’t be enough to actually kill any of them. Probably not, but the _chaos_ it would create would be glorious. For a while he seriously considered telling Anna to wait. To ask her to make a whole supply of poisoned blood as a farewell gift to Santa Monica.

But no. He shouldn’t allow himself to get distracted now. No. This was all about Therese. Killing a thousand of the conceited bloodsuckers would not be as sweet as feeling her undead life slip through his fingers. He could see it, smell it, _feel_ it. Therese’s shocked eyes staring into his. Her cries of pain mingling with Anna’s laughter in the background. Lukewarm blood and tepid flesh sliding past his hands as he reached inside her. He would make sure she died slowly. He would give her ample time to realize what was going to happen to her. Would she beg for her life? He grinned. It didn’t matter whether she did or not. He would take her life. He would own her. All these years. More than a decade of subjugation and now he would own _her_. And he would own her forever. That was the beauty of bringing death. He chose someone and stayed with them for the _rest of their lives_. His face the last thing they saw. His voice the last thing they heard. In giving death he stole their last moments. That was what it meant to _take_ a life. He took it and he kept it _forever_.

He was startled from his thoughts by the sound of his email client. He walked over to the computer and saw it was an email from Therese. It read simply:

“You must come in at 4:30 instead of 4:00 tomorrow. And bring the collection equipment as well as my usual supply.”

Vandal frowned. That would be changing their schedule considerably. He swore softly. This better not be because she was leaving town again. If she was, he would have to tell Anna to hurry and offer Therese to bring her some extra supplies for her trip. He relaxed a little. Yes, that would work. She might even order him to bring her something extra.

There was a knock on his window and he quickly closed the email.

“Yes?” he said, walking up to the counter, but his face changed when he saw who it was. “Mercurio,” he said cautiously.

“Vandal,” Mercurio nodded in return.

There was a tense silence. As far as his fellow ghouls went, Mercurio was not too bad to deal with. There was no stupidity in him to provoke Vandal’s particular disgust. He could even respect him to some degree. Mercurio could get his hands on _anything_ , no matter how illegal and Vandal valued that. Some of his most beloved blades had come to him through Mercurio’s hands. More importantly, it had always seemed to Vandal that Mercurio respected and feared his master rather than that he actually loved or even _liked_ him. His master was the problem though. Mercurio had been Prince LaCroix’s ghoul and since he had met a rather explosive end that made his position…difficult. Mercurio was too valuable a guy to waste, but Vandal knew that as far as most vampires were concerned, everything LaCroix had ever touched was tainted. Honestly, he had expected Mercurio to disappear after LaCroix died, but he hadn’t. Nobody seemed to know whom he belonged to now, but he had just continued with his business as if nothing had changed. He must belong to someone though, he didn’t age like an abandoned ghoul would. Vandal had only seen him once before since the Prince’s death and that had been at the Asylum. Mercurio coming to buy blood was definitely a surprise.

“What can I get you?” he asked, letting his mouth widen into a grin.

“Three packs, best quality that you’ve got,” Mercurio requested.

“Of course,” Vandal said and he leaned over the cooler to get them.

“Quite some changes on the way, I hear,” Mercurio said.

“Yeah?” Vandal said, sliding the blood packs over to him. “What kind of changes?”

“Thanks,” Mercurio said. He put the bags away. “The controversial kind,” he answered. “You haven’t heard anything then?”

“I hear a lot of things,” Vandal grinned. “Most of them inside my own head…”

Mercurio grimaced and Vandal hid his amusement. The unnerving effect of the derangement people had come to expect from him was much more fun now he could use it consciously.

“Eh, forget I said anything,” Mercurio shook his head. “But send my regards to Therese, will you?”

Vandal slanted his head. That was suspicious. “Of course,” he said. “Anything else?”

“No, that’s all. Thanks.”

“Do come again,” he smiled vacantly and Mercurio left, walking rather slowly.

Vandal watched him go, thoughtful and still rather suspicious. If Mercurio was convinced something big was about to happen it probably would and he clearly seemed to think it had something to do with Therese. All the more reason to be prepared to hurry then, he thought.

*Have you started?* he texted Anna.

*Of course,* she replied immediately.

Vandal grinned. She was as eager as he was. Of course she was. They were really going to do this. They _would_ pull it off. Tomorrow he’d visit Therese for the last time. The _next_ time he would see her it would be with Anna in tow and it wouldn’t be a visit. It would be so much more. It would be the ending strain of an unparalleled symphony.

♦♦♦

Therese was sitting behind her desk when he entered with the carrier bag of blood in one hand and the case with equipment in the other.

“Ah, Vandal,” she said. “Take a seat.” She gestured to a chair opposite her desk.

Well, that was unusual. He obeyed immediately though.

“I have not received any more complaints about the blood bank,” she said.

He bowed his head thankfully. At least going out of his mind with boredom night after night hadn’t been in vain.

“However, I have decided that you _will_ be joined by another ghoul.”

Vandal froze.

“To ensure your working together well I will give you four weeks to find a suitable candidate,” Therese said.

He relaxed. For a moment he had feared that she had already chosen someone, but this was not a problem. Four weeks would see Therese dead and gone.

“If you fail to find someone, I will choose someone myself. Understood?” she warned him.

“Yes, mistress,” he grovelled. “Thank you.”

She gave a nod of satisfaction. “Now,” she said, moving on. “It is high time I got some other affairs in order as well. I have been much absent lately and I have been neglecting to keep as close an eye on my businesses as I deem necessary.”

Vandal regarded her silently. Where was she going with this?

“But I will soon be appointed Primogen of my clan and I cannot be seen to lack control over my affairs.”

“Congratulations, ma’am,” Vandal gasped. Was _that_ what Mercurio had been hinting at? This was fucking perfect. Primogen of her clan… Therese was on the point of getting everything her black heart desired and he was going to take it all away.

“So,” Therese said smugly. “I have chosen a new ghoul to run my club for me. With your new partner that will make five of you to take care of.”

 _‘Take care of_.’ He would make her _suffer_. He would make her _scream_. _Beg_.

“Therefore you shall teach me how to use this device for myself,” she said, resting her hand on the case he had put on her desk. “And you will bring me a larger supply of sustenance from now on so I can feed you all at once.”

Vandal could not keep the disgust out of his expression, but Therese wasn’t watching him. She had opened the case and was inspecting the contents.

“Let’s begin,” she said.

“Yes, ma’am,” he answered through clenched teeth. If Therese wanted to learn how to stick needles in herself, he would show her. Her plans wouldn’t have the time to come to fruition anyway. Mechanically he handed Therese the needle and showed her how to insert it and how to attach the vacumated tubes. He had never thought about how many ghouls Therese might have. Well, soon it would be five. Or that was her plan at least. He grimaced. In the all too recent past it would have made him _so_ angry to know there were others. He would have been livid at the thought of having to share her blood. But right now he only felt contempt. Yes, contempt mixed with the dark pleasure of knowing none of the things she wanted would ever happen. Because he would _end_ her before they could.

After a few tubes, Therese understood the principle and needed no further instructions.

“Excellent,” she said, when she had filled the last tube. “Next time I shall do this beforehand.” She took the tray of vials and placed it in front of Vandal. “Drink your fill.”

Vandal took up the tray to place it back in the case.

“I meant drink it _now_ ,” Therese commanded.

He stared at her. _What?_ “Ma’am?” he managed to force past his lips.

“Drink,” Therese said impatiently.

“But…Miss Voerman…” he stammered, panic gripping his throat.

“I want you to leave the equipment here this time,” she said sternly. “So drink, clean the equipment and be on your way.”

Vandal stared at the vials of blood and he had to tense every muscle in his body to prevent himself from shaking. He could _not_ drink her again. He _couldn’t_. He refused. She would not be inside him again, looking through his eyes, listening in his ears. No. Never again.

“They…they are not reusable, ma’am,” he said in a choked voice.

Therese was eyeing him with marked displeasure. “I don’t see why not,” she said. “Now drink.”

Vandal glanced up at her and her cold eyes bored into his.

“Do _not_ make me tell you again,” she said menacingly.

He took up the first vial. He couldn’t disobey her. He might have the freedom to do it, but only at the cost of his life. He was only mortal. He was _weak_ compared to her. All his plans were useless now. He could die or be hers again. Hers completely. Hers on the inside. Slave to the Bitch Goddess once more. As soon as he loosened the cap of the tube, the scent of her blood overwhelmed him. It was exactly the smell he remembered. The smell that had haunted his dreams, that had ruled his head and heart. But it was not sweet now. It was sickening. Therese was still looking at him. He _had_ to drink it. He had to drink it to live. But why live? What use was it to have a life that wasn’t his own. No. She couldn’t make him. Not this time. Let her rip him apart with her bare hands, let her sink her teeth into him and drain him dry. He would not be hers again. Let her know her power over him was gone. Let Anna know he was capable of choosing death over slavery.

Anna… What would she do if he died tonight? Would she cry for him? Would she be sad? _‘Love exists. It just doesn’t do you any good in the end.’_ He took the top off the vial, still not knowing whether to drain it or throw it in Therese’s face. He glanced at her impatient expression and suddenly knew something with startling certainty. Screw sad. Anna would be _furious_. She wouldn’t cry for him. She’d kill for him, starting with Therese and if she didn’t die in the process, following up with every other bloodsucker she could get her hands on. Defiance stirred inside him like a snake. He would _not_ let that happen. Therese would die by _his_ hands, not Anna’s. He had survived her enslavement before, he would do it again. With the frantic movement of a man putting a gun to his head, Vandal raised the vial to his lips and tipped his head back.

He had never drunk from the vials before. Therese couldn’t know that, but of course he hadn’t. There was only a very little blood inside it, swallowing hardly did anything. But he tasted her. She was everywhere. Everyone. Everything. He opened another tube and brought it to his lips. Don’t think. Just swallow. Therese was staring at him. **_Demonic bitch_**. Another one. Drain it. Don’t hesitate. **_Sickening. Disgusting._** She was already tapping her fingers impatiently on her arm. **_There’s needles to spare in the case, ram one down her throat_.** Another sip. Another swallow. This time he felt something stir inside him and he gasped and groaned. No. **_No_**. He remembered this feeling. It twisted and rippled and it would find its way into his brain.

“I had forgotten how pathetic you get,” Therese snapped disgustedly.

 ** _Conceited whore_** **.** Grabbing blindly for the next vial Vandal listened numbly to the hateful hissing in his head. Hateful… His fingers closed around the vial almost tight enough to break it. He hated her. He _loathed_ her. He wanted to destroy her _more than ever_. His heart beat faster at the realization. These thoughts weren’t fully his. He didn’t control them. They wanted to control _him_. But they _didn’t_ worship Therese.

“Hurry up,” Therese ordered.

Vandal opened the vial and swallowed. He could do this. He could win. If he could only hold on to this hatred longer than Therese could be patient. Slowly he took another vial and opened it. He swallowed too fast and started coughing. Therese hissed and pushed her chair away from him. **_Stupid undead bitch_.** He opened another tube and let his hands shake so violently he actually spilled her blood.

“This is insufferable!” Therese burst out. “There are enough clean vials here to work with for now. You shall bring me more later. Now take this away and get out.”

Vandal got to his feet, glowing with the warmth of her blood, but equally burning with hatred. He shoved the vials in the bag he had brought the blood packs in and for a moment he thought he could hear Anna’s disapproving voice in the back of his head. He shivered as his eyes met Therese’s.

“ _Go_ ,” she ordered. “And clean yourself off _before_ leaving.”

“Yes, Miss Voerman,” he said and to his absolute horror he wasn’t the only one that said it. Yes, Miss Voerman. _Yes_ , Miss Voerman. _Yes, Miss Voerman._

Vandal turned on his heels and ran out of the room, running from the voices in his head. _He shouldn’t be running from her. He should be going to her. Going to her._ **_So he could rip her throat out._ ** Yes, hold on to that. Just a little longer. He scrambled out of the elevator and pushed his way through the crowd. No one even saw the sweat pouring down his face, or the bloodstains on his hand. Vandal dug the nails of his left hand into his palm to focus himself and looked for a group of girls at the bar. There was always a group of girls. **_There_**. They would probably have noticed if he had taken the bottle of tequila, but they didn’t see him take the salt shaker. _What was he doing? He should go wash his hand. Therese had told him to-_ Vandal grabbed an abandoned bottle of beer off the counter that was still half-full and ran out of the door.

He made it halfway into the alley before he felt the sickening aching beginning to glow in his chest.

“Fuck. You.” he hissed through gritted teeth.

He unscrewed the top of the salt shaker and emptied it above the bottle of beer. Salt went everywhere, but at least half of it ended up in the bottle. He shook it violently and then knocked back as much of the vile liquid as he could in one go. The salt burned in his throat and his eyes watered. He tipped the bottle back again, forcing himself to swallow. His stomach turned over and the bottle fell from his hand, smashing to pieces. Heaving uncontrollably Vandal doubled over. He managed to brace his hands against the brick wall just before he threw up the entire contents of his stomach.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really like Mercurio. I hope he gets to live and be happy.   
> And as for Vandal… I guess…oops?
> 
> I’m sorry about the cliffhanger, have another song by Ludo to make up for it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sn-kBXqVKzw&ab_channel=Deyan  
> I’ll upload again this weekend!
> 
> PS. I should hope this goes without saying, but just to be clear: Anna and Vandal have no respect for any sort of system of faith because they are awful people, that does not mean I share their views in the slightest.


	17. Side Effects

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Content warnings:** Domestic violence and a moment of non-con, mention of recreational drug use.

Anna was busy in her lab when her phone buzzed. It was not unusual for Vandal to text her whenever he got back from a visit to Therese, but she was busy. Her phone kept buzzing. Was someone calling her? Anna glanced over at the caller ID. Who’d be- _Vandal_? She snapped off her glove and hastily answered.

“Vandal?” she asked, concerned.

“Get to the car.” Vandal’s voice sounded strained.

She blinked and glanced around her lab. “I can’t leave right now,” she said. “I-”

“ _Get to the car_.”

Anna’s blood ran cold. She had _never_ heard him use a tone of voice so frantic. “I’m coming,” she replied.

The line went dead immediately and Anna ignored all her better judgement and ran out of her lab without putting anything away. She gave herself just enough time to turn off the lights and lock the doors, but her keys were still in her hand when she ran out the backdoor of the clinic. Something was wrong. _Something_ had gone wrong. Anna ran panting into the parking lot. If Therese had hurt Vandal… If Therese had done _anything_ to him. An uncomfortable feeling that was dangerously close to panic was trying to get a hold of her, but she refused to let it in. She spotted Vandal’s car and rushed towards it. When she was close enough she saw Vandal sitting slumped forward in the passenger’s seat. _Fuck_.

“Vandal?” she almost snapped, tearing open the driver’s side door.

He groaned in response and Anna felt a rush of relief, at least he was conscious.

“What happened?” she asked, sliding into the driver’s seat and closing the door again in one swift movement. Her voice sounded eerily calm, even though she was short of breath.

“Fucking bitch made me drink her blood,” Vandal groaned.

“ _What_ ,” Anna breathed.

Vandal was leaning against the dashboard and didn’t even try to lift his head. His hands were balled into fists, his nails digging into his palms. Anna nearly reached out to try and pry them open, but then she remembered how he had struck himself when he was suffering from the withdrawal symptoms. Perhaps he needed this to control himself right now.

“I didn’t drink all of it,” he grunted.

Anna flicked on the interior light and gasped. “Fuck, Vandal, you’re covered in blood.”

He shook his head. “I threw it up,” he rasped.

“Does that work?” Anna asked, mind racing to find something in her memory that could help her.

“Guess we’ll fucking find out,” he spat.

He wasn’t shaking. He wasn’t mumbling. He wasn’t begging for Therese. Whatever she had done to him it hadn’t worked. _Yet_. Anna exhaled. She’d get him home and she would take care of this. It was a minor setback. Nothing more.

“Where are the car keys?” she asked.

“Dropped them,” Vandal groaned.

Anna felt around on the floor of the car on his side and found the keys. “Right,” she said, keeping her voice under control. “I’ll get you home. Do you want to go to yours or mine?”

“Don’t. Care.”

She pressed her lips together and started the car. Vampire blood worked _fast_. Just like the vitae did. Of course it did work slower when taken orally, but still, she doubted you could just throw up the blood and suffer no effects. Well, Vandal obviously wasn’t ok. But he didn’t look exactly _mad_ either. Rather in extreme pain. Anna hesitated. If Vandal was going to cause a scene it had better be at his own place, where nobody seemed to pay attention to either screams or gunshots by night or by day. But at her place she would have the upper hand and had access to several items that would be extremely useful when dealing with a crisis. She sat in the idling car, Vandal silently beside her, still slumped forward. Anna wondered if he would stay like this. She doubted it. Vandal tended to get quiet only to get loud later. She really didn’t want to explain more incidents to her neighbours… Wait. She raised her head. It was the first Friday of the month. That meant Mr. Ruiz would be gone visiting his sister. That settled it. She was willing to take a chance on the neighbours above and below her.

Anna put the car in drive and drove straight to her apartment. Vandal didn’t speak, so she did neither. When she parked the car, he didn’t move.

“We’re here,” she said and she put a hand on his shoulder.

No reaction. Shit.

“ _Vandal_ ,” she said urgently. She turned her face towards him. “Vandal!” He was completely out of it. His eyes were half-open and he didn’t seem quite unconscious, but he was completely unresponsive.

“Damn,” Anna breathed. She felt his pulse and found that he was strangely cold to the touch. “What the _hell_?” she hissed. Vampire blood was supposed to warm you up, just like the vitae did! She pinched a bit of his skin at his collar bone and twisted sharply. Vandal _didn’t react._ Anna stared at him for a trembling, panicked second. He wasn’t going to _die_. That _couldn’t_ \- He- She- Anna clenched her fists and tried to think. Vampire blood was toxic, sure, but not deadly. That was the whole point. It infected. It didn’t kill. He had drunk _gallons_ of the stuff over his lifetime, he… Anna’s eyes widened. _It infected_. The _first_ thing she had tested the vitae on was viral and bacterial infections in the blood. And it had worked like _crazy_.

“That is just like you,” Anna snapped frantically. “To fucking _fight_ yourself to death.”

She took a couple of deep breaths, trying think what she could _possibly_ do to improve this situation. Angrily she glanced around. There was no one here, it was still too early in the morning, but soon people would start waking up. “ _Fuck_ ,” she swore and in an impulse she grabbed her bag.

“This will work,” she hissed, grabbing a bottle of vitae and a case of needles. “This _will_ work.”

Anna exhaled slowly and her hands steadied as her mind cleared. She had not come this far to fail now. She filled a syringe with a considerable dose of vitae. This was _her_ creation. It was helping him fight Therese’s blood and it would help him win. Cold, shivering doubt was wavering at the back of her mind, but she drove it away. His temperature was low. The vitae raised body temperature. His pulse was weak. The vitae quickened the heart. He had never reacted to Therese’s blood like this before and the only difference in him now was the vitae. If the blood wasn’t affecting him like it used to, he must be fighting it, the vitae must be fighting it. This _would_ work.

Calmly, precisely and carefully Anna inserted the needle into Vandal’s neck and injected him with the entire dose of vitae. She pulled the needle out and while she disposed of it safely and methodically, she counted.

One-one thousand. Two-one thousand. Three-one thousand. Four-one thousand. Five-

Vandal gulped in a sharp breath and his body went rigid for a moment. Triumph burned in Anna’s chest and she quickly felt his pulse. That was better.

“Get up,” she said. “You need to get inside.”

He groaned something unintelligible, pressing his hand to his neck. Anna got out of the car and walked around it, opening his door.

“Come,” she said. Vandal was shaking. She grabbed his arm.

“ _Don’t_ touch me,” he growled. There was a vicious edge to his voice and Anna carefully took a step back. He looked at her and apart from a certain bewilderment in his eyes he seemed fully conscious and aware now. She wouldn’t even allow herself to feel relieved.

“Alright,” she said calmly. “Get moving then.”

Vandal got out of the car and she walked behind him instead of in front of him as they entered the building. He walked steadily, but hunched, like an animal that wished it could bolt.

“Why don’t you sit down?” Anna said cautiously when she had closed the door of her apartment behind them. She lingered by the door. She wanted to lock it and she didn’t want him to see her do it.

“Don’t talk to me like I’m a patient,” Vandal grunted, glaring at her.

She met his gaze and gave him a blank stare. He clearly didn’t know how she talked to patients. Or rather _subjects_ , she didn’t have patients. “Okay,” she said bluntly. “ _Sit. Down_.”

He actually cracked a grin at that and he walked to the living room. Anna silently locked the door and put the key away out of sight. She was tense. Her entire body was on high alert. Vandal felt…wrong. Not like he had felt when she met him, when he was still completely under Therese’s influence. Not like the time he had suffered from withdrawal. This was different and she really wished she understood how exactly, because right now she felt like she couldn’t depend on anything.

She followed him to the living room and saw he was sitting forward in a chair, his head resting in his hands. He did not look up when she entered. His fingers were clawing into his hair in such a cramped way she was sure his nails were digging into his scalp.

“Mind you don’t damage my man,” she said. The expression almost startled her. She had never called anyone that. But he _was_.

It got a reaction from him at least. He lifted his head and looked at her, making an effort to relax his hands.

“There you go,” she smiled and she walked towards him. She didn’t know what was going on inside his head right now, but it was probably best to distract him from it. “If you need pain to focus on, _I_ could always help with that,” she teased, resting a playful hand on his shoulder.

As soon as she touched him he gave a sharp shrug, shaking her off. Anna felt a cold stab of resentment, but she pushed it aside and retracted her hand.

“Get me a drink,” he muttered, lowering his head again.

“No,” Anna refused point-blank. The last thing he needed was something that impaired his self-control.

“ _Something_ to drink,” he corrected himself wearily. “Don’t care what.”

Whenever he spoke the strain in his voice tightened the knot that had started to form in Anna’s stomach. She had hoped the vitae would have a more decided positive effect. It had woken him up, and had clearly made him somewhat stronger, but he did not seem much better than how he had been when she first found him in the car. She was not going to show how disconcerted she was though. Vandal was very nearly going to pieces and she needed to stay calm. Without a word she went to the kitchen and, remembering that he must have made himself vomit, she poured him a glass of milk. If he would just tell her what he needed, this would be a whole lot easier. Didn’t want to be touched, didn’t want to be fussed over, _did_ want to be served. She walked back, holding the glass out for him until he took it. Vandal drained the glass in one long drink. He shuddered when he put the glass down and Anna had to sit down and cross her arms to keep herself from touching him.

“Tell me what’s going on?” she asked quietly.

His eyes moved in her direction for a single glance. “Well,” he said with great effort. “I’m having a cosy little group chat with myself at the moment. It’s a _bit_ exhausting to be honest.”

“But you’re still in control,” Anna said urgently. “It’s the vitae, I’m certain of it. You don’t look like a ghoul who has just drunk. You’re not…manic.” Yes, manic was the word.

“You mean the hate and the love all tangled together, pulling me around like a fucking doll?” he growled. “Oh, it’s there, it just comes and goes.” He grimaced. “When it comes I can’t do anything about it. And when it goes I want to _kill myself_.”

He seemed not to remember the short spell of near unconsciousness he had suffered. Anna looked at him in utter frustration. This was worse than him screaming his head off and begging for Therese. She didn’t know what to _do_. At least he had wanted something when he was going mad with withdrawal. She needed something to do. Just sitting here watching him fight himself in silence was unbearable. She’d give him some more vitae if she thought it would be safe, but she was not going to risk an overdose. He was awake now. Awake and talking, that was good enough.

“Well, you’re fighting,” she said firmly. “And you’re winning. We’ll get through it.”

He didn’t answer, but he did look at her and as his eyes met hers they seemed to get more focussed. Yes, that was it. Keep talking. Keep him listening.

So Anna talked. She knew it didn’t matter about what. He wouldn’t remember a word she’d say anyway. So she talked, wandering idly from subject to subject, watching Vandal as he sat in the same slumped position. Sometimes he reacted slightly to something she said. Every now and again he suddenly tensed up and seemed to struggle to breathe. But he didn’t say a word and made no voluntary sound. This was going to be a long day…

♦

Anna’s voice was a blur of sound. There were no words in it, only a melodic rise and fall of tones. She asked him something. He didn’t remember replying. The chair was uncomfortable but he refused to move from it. He felt sick. Like he was fighting his own insides. A memory that he had thought long faded, suddenly returned. He _remembered_ this feeling.

“What does it feel like then?”

He had not realized he had closed his eyes, but now he opened them to look at Anna. “What?” he said, trying to shake the fog from his mind.

“You said you felt something like this before,” she said, looking at him intently. “Tell me, please?”

Did she really want to know or did she want him to talk? Either way, he didn’t feel like it.

“Please?” Anna pleaded.

 ** _Why didn’t she leave him alone?_** Vandal grinned at her pouting face. “Normally I have to work a lot harder to get you to beg,” he teased. **_Slut_**. “Do it again.”

She seemed pleased that he was responding at all and obligingly put on big eyes and a soft, meek voice. “ _Please_ tell me?” she begged. “What does it feel like?”

He chuckled weakly and leaned back, keeping his eyes fixed on her. “Feels like the first time I smoked weed,” he muttered. “I couldn’t deal with…something…the loss of control maybe. Ended up fighting it every step of the way. Threw up eventually.”

“Not worth your pocket money then,” Anna remarked.

He gave a curt laugh. That was the only time he had ever tried anything with hallucinogenic properties. He had _hated_ it. Stimulants and sedatives he could keep down, but nothing mind-altering. A sneer cut through his thoughts. Mind-altering… Soon he wouldn’t have a mind _left_.

“What’s so funny?” Anna asked.

Was he still laughing? He shut his mouth. **_She was staring at him_.** She was just looking, a little worried maybe. Or a lot worried actually. Worried about him… Vandal swallowed. “What about you?” he asked, trying to sound normal. “You ever did anything that naughty when you were a little princess?”

Anna smiled and started talking. Vandal didn’t listen. Not to the words anyway. He just listened to the rise and fall of her speaking. It was almost like she was singing to him. He leaned back further into the chair and tried to find the meaning in all that noise. _**He wished she’d shut up.**_ No, the sound of her voice was soothing, but he couldn’t understand it. He was so tired. He needed to keep the fog out. If he let the fog cloud his thoughts, he’d forget what he was thinking about and he’d start thinking about _her_. **_She wouldn’t be able to reach him here though._** Except she would. **_Not this time_.** She always did. He was _so_ tired.

“Vandal?”

 ** _What now?_** He couldn’t open his eyes. He didn’t want to.

“Vandal, come to bed if you want to sleep.”

He wasn’t sleeping. He couldn’t sleep now. **_He just needed some quiet_.**

“I’m going to run down to the car real quick, alright?”

It was dark around him. Why was she talking? The dark should be quiet.

“Alright?”

**_Shut. Up._ **

It was quiet. **_Finally_.** Vandal felt his own breathing hurt inside his chest. It never hurt like this before. Not even the first time. It had always felt good. He had hated it, but it had _felt_ good. His arms and legs were _aching_. He was so…damn…angry. He didn’t _want_ this.

Vandal felt himself get to his feet more than he made a conscious decision to get up. Movement. He needed to move. If he moved, the fog would have to move. The voices would have to move. **_He couldn’t stand them._** They were all hissing behind his ears and eyes, chewing at the edges of his mind. There were too many of them. He could not fight them all. Some of them sounded too much like him. He couldn’t tell which was which anymore. **_He needed air_.** Yes, he couldn’t breathe. He needed to go outside. He almost lost his balance trying to get to the hallway. His hand grabbed the doorpost to steady himself and there was a dangerous creaking of wood. He needed to keep moving. **_He needed to get out._** No, he needed to stay here. He only needed some air. **_No air here_. _The little bitch locked the door, he heard her do it_. **_Who?_ Vandal smiled involuntarily. Anna was never as quiet as she thought she was. **_She was trying to keep him away_.** No, that wasn’t right. She hadn’t locked her door against him since…since… His head hurt. Fucking. Voices. He wouldn’t listen to them. Mustn’t listen to them. **_Must listen to them._** Why was he walking in circles? Where was he? There was a sound of a door opening. See, it wasn’t locked after all. Someone was looking at him. Watching him with every step he took. Grey eyes. _Grey like Therese’s._ **_Don’t even think her name_.** He felt cold, but that voice was hot. It was not like the others. It was louder. Stronger. **_Better_. ** Who was that talking? **_Trying to drown him out?_** Was that his name? Vandal spun round and snarled. The blood was pounding in his ears. He couldn’t hear, he couldn’t listen. Wouldn’t listen. **_He refused to listen to Therese_. **

Therese. _Therese_. Therese. She was calling for him. Calling him back. **_Fucking bitch thought she owned him._** _She did own him_. No, not this time. T ** _his time he would make her pay. He would make her suffer._** _He didn’t want to make her suffer. He loved her._ **_Hated her._** He could smell her. She was right there. **_Good_**. Good? **_Make her suffer_.** Yes. **_Make her pay_.** Yes. **_Show her that she doesn’t own_ _you._ ** He could hear her heels click on the hospital floor. Coming closer. Ever closer. **_Not close enough._**

With a hiss Vandal’s hand shot out and closed around Therese’s throat. He slammed her against the nearest wall so hard that she screamed, but the screaming stopped when he tightened his grip. He couldn’t see for the black flickering behind his eyes. Therese was choking. He laughed. He had never laughed this loudly. **_She didn’t own him, he owned her_.** She was trying to speak. **_She would never speak again_. ** Roughly Vandal pressed his lips against her gasping mouth and tasted her. Nails clawed uselessly at his arms and he squeezed her soft neck until he felt her body shake with the struggle for breath. Wait…breath? **_He could feel her defencelessness. She was nothing to him_.** _She was everything to him. He wanted her so badly._ **_Then he would take her! Take her, without letting her take him._** Yes, he would drink the warmth from her body. Warmth? **_Doesn’t she taste amazing?_** Yes, Anna tasted amazing. **_Yes_.** Anna? **_Yes, he could taste her fear_.** No. **_Yes_.** He wanted more. He _needed_ more. **_Yes_.** No! Not like this!

Vandal let go and stumbled backwards. Anna slid down the wall and onto the kitchen floor, gasping for air and pressing her hands to her throat.

The hissing voices in his head were drowned out by the sound of his own panic. “ _Anna_ -” he rasped.

Anna’s eyes shot up, staring at him wildly. Vandal could see red welts around her throat under her shaking fingers and her face was flooded with terror. He took a step towards her, hardly knowing what to do and she screamed.

“Get away from me!” she cried and to Vandal’s horror tears began streaming across her cheeks. He had never seen Anna cry.

“Princess-” he said with a faltering voice that still sounded way too rough. His hand only made the slightest movement towards her, but Anna whimpered with fear and scrambled backwards across the floor to get away from him.

“No!” she sobbed. “You’re a monster again.”

 ** _Monster? He would show her a monster._** Anna was _afraid_ of him. **_How dare she run away from him?_** Anna _couldn’t_ be afraid of him. Not her. Not now. He stared at her in abject horror. She was all tears and cries of fear. Vandal stood frozen to his spot. How could she be like this? What had he done to her? He didn’t-

Anna abruptly rose to her feet and before Vandal could react her outstretched hand collided with his face. The slap was hard enough to make him lose his balance and it was followed by an immediate vicious sting in his cheek. Instinctively he reached up to touch it and he felt the wetness of blood on his fingers. Anna was looking at him with a face free of fear, but with eyes snapping with determination.

“ _That_ -” she said, stretching her hand painfully. “-was for forgetting who I am and _this_ -” She pried a ring with a bloody stone turned inward off her finger. “-was for leaving marks on me where other people can see them.”

Vandal was stunned. If her face hadn’t still been wet there would have been no evidence that she had ever cried.

“Are you back?” she demanded. “Am I talking to Vandal again, not the _ghoul_?”

“Yes,” he rasped. There were no voices now. Only stunned silence inside him.

“Good,” she said, walking towards him. To his astonishment she stretched out her arms and rested her wrists on his shoulders, fingers grasping towards the back of his neck. She fixed her eyes on his and said: “Can you hear me in there, ghoul? I don’t care how long you’re here for, how long it will take for Vandal to filter your _filth_ out of his system, but you will _never_ again mistake me for Therese.”

Vandal felt the twist of disgust in his chest at the mention of her name, but it was drowned out by something else. Something that was staring silently into Anna’s eyes.

“I am _Anna_ ,” she said, with an angry pride burning in her voice. “I am the princess, _not_ the queen and I _never_ will be. _Not even when the queen is smouldering in her eternal grave_.”

Vandal still stared at her. God she was beautiful. Eyes full of venom, voice full of fire. The marks on her neck like a necklace crafted from pain and violence. The tears on her cheeks… The tears. His eyes darkened and he placed his hands firmly on Anna’s hips. She did not shy away from him now, but he could still see her frightened face and hear her sobbing screams. There had been such terror, such panic in her. He had been _certain_ of it.

“ _Princess_ ,” he growled darkly.

“Yes,” she answered boldly.

“Do _not_ lie to me like that again,” he threatened.

“Don’t mistake me for Therese again,” she retorted, brazenly holding his gaze.

He snarled. He had _hurt_ her. Choked her so bad she must have nearly passed out. But all she cared about… “You cannot hate her more than I do,” Vandal said. “But sometimes you make me wonder…”

Anna wrapped her arms tighter around his neck and he saw something angry and possessive stir in her expression. _Anna_ … Vandal grimaced and lowered his head until his forehead rested against the top of hers. His cheek didn’t sting anymore. The cut had probably already healed completely.

“You okay now?” Anna muttered.

“Yes…” he said slowly. He thought so at least. It was quiet inside him now. He felt calm.

“Was it because you fell asleep?” she asked.

“Maybe.” He didn’t know. He wasn’t even sure if he had actually slept.

“No sleep for us then, I guess,” she said wearily.

Suddenly he remembered something. “You left me alone,” he frowned. “I lost it while you were away. Where did you go?”

“I went down to your car,” Anna replied, smoothing back a stray strand of his hair.

“What for?” he asked.

“Your bag,” she said. “I forgot to take it in with us.”

His bag… His bag with the rest of Therese’s blood in it. He grimaced. Ever practical Anna. She didn’t want it to go to waste. Well, she had paid dearly for that bit of frugality. They both had. Well, nearly anyway.

Anna suddenly raised her head for a kiss and instead of asking her what she had done with the blood Vandal pressed his lips against hers. She kissed him and without thinking about it he raised one hand to the back of her neck. Instantly he felt her tense up. Not out of fear, he felt, but simply out of pain. Real pain. Regretfully he let go and Anna made a tutting sound. She studied her injuries in the reflective glass of the oven door with a frown on her face. Vandal watched her silently, with a mixed muddle of feelings.

“Well,” she sighed. “I guess you’ll be getting your wish.” She walked out of the room.

Vandal couldn’t imagine what she was talking about.

“Can you bring me a glass of water?” Anna called out.

She was clearly convinced he had truly gotten a hold of himself again. For the time being he was convinced as well, but he wasn’t letting his guard down just yet.

“Vandal?” she called again.

“Yes,” he replied absentmindedly and he filled a glass with water. When he went into the living room and saw her holding a bottle of vitae and a box of her medical equipment he understood. A thrill of excitement shook his tired body. Was she really, finally, going to take some herself?

“I can hardly show up at work tomorrow looking like this,” Anna grumbled, answering his questioning look. She took the glass from him and placed it beside the bottle on the coffee table.

“What are you doing?” Vandal asked when she sat down on the couch and unscrewed the top of the bottle of vitae.

“Making myself a refreshing drink,” she snarked. “What does it look like I’m doing?’

“You’re going to _drink_ it?” he asked.

“Yes,” she said.

“Drinking it is wasteful,” he said, sitting down in a chair. Something withheld him from sitting down beside her on the couch. “You need a larger dose to get the same effect. And injection is faster too.”

Anna glanced at him and shook her head. Suddenly he remembered how she had looked away from the needle that time long ago she had let him take her blood.

“You _can’t_ be afraid of needles, princess,” he said, looking at her in amazement.

“Of course not,” Anna scoffed, taking out a pipette.

“Then what is this about?” he demanded to know. “Is it your mother-”

Anna let out a scornful laugh. “My mother snorted and swallowed,” she said. “She didn’t shoot up.” She glanced at his frustrated face and her mouth twitched. “I just don’t like to break my own skin,” she said. “I’ve never been able to do it.”

“Let me then,” he offered. From what Anna had said the reactions from patients that had drunk the vitae were much milder than the ones she injected with it. He wanted her to really _feel_ the euphoria. A thrill of excitement ran through him again, but this feeling was all his own, just like the voice wishing she’d let him give her a proper dose straight into her veins.

“No,” Anna said after a short silence. “You’d enjoy it too much and you deserve no such privileges tonight.”

Vandal grumbled and leaned back in his chair. She had _had_ her revenge, there was no reason to punish him further.

Anna glanced at him and laughed softly. “You’re looking more like yourself again,” she observed. “Much more.”

He felt more like himself again. “Nothing better at bringing a man back to earth than disappointment,” he grimaced.

Anna scoffed at him and put a small dose of vitae in the glass. She carefully sealed the bottle again. Vandal watched her and she gave him an appraising look.

“You should eat something,” she said. “I’m sure your stomach has calmed down by now.”

“You’re not going to forbid me to watch you while you drink it,” Vandal scowled. “Because I _will_ watch you.” He let a grin creep onto his face. It felt good to be in control of his own body again. “I want to see everything, princess.”

She gave him an amused look and as she tilted her head the welts on her neck suddenly seemed to look worse. Vandal felt conflicted. They _did_ look good on her. Bruised red on soft white skin. But he had not meant to place them there and she had tried to fight him and failed. He looked at his hands, but her nails had left no marks whatsoever. Or perhaps they had healed already. He could have killed her. If he had not managed to chase the voices away just in time. If he had not recognized her scent and taste and warmth in time. He could have _killed_ her.

“But you didn’t.”

He blinked and looked at Anna. She was watching him with a sober, but soft expression.

“You didn’t and you couldn’t have,” she said decidedly, as if she knew _exactly_ what he had been thinking. “And I _knew_ you weren’t going to. Do you want to know how I knew?”

She was wrong. He knew she was wrong, but he nodded nevertheless.

“Because you wouldn’t have wasted my death by strangling me,” she said.

He blinked, something stirring uncomfortably in his memory.

“And you _wouldn’t_ have closed your eyes,” she continued. “If you were really going to take me you would have watched.” She smiled faintly. “You couldn’t have helped yourself.”

Vandal made no answer. She was only saying things she wanted to be true. But it _was_ true. He wouldn’t have wasted her pain by shutting her mouth so soon. He wouldn’t have shut his eyes. No, no. He would have watched until he saw the surrender dawn on her face. He would have looked at her as she squirmed and screamed, drawing the blood from her cold body and cutting out her dead, unbeating heart. _He would never again mistake her for Therese_. This wasn’t about Anna. It was never about Anna. The ghoul in him wouldn’t have killed Anna…because he wouldn’t have killed Therese either.

“Therese is going to be the Malkavian Primogen,” Vandal said hoarsely. “We have to kill her soon. If we wait any longer, she’ll be too hard to get alone. She wants to change the blood collections, feed all her ghouls at once. I had to leave your equipment with her.”

Anna looked worried. “She’s not leaving town, is she?” she asked.

“I don’t know,” he said. “But she’s getting a new ghoul to run the club for her and she wants me to choose someone to help me run the blood bank. If we don’t get rid of her quickly, we won’t get a chance to do it any time soon.”

“Right,” Anna said tensely. “Well, we will. As soon as you’re clean again we’ll-”

“ _No_ ,” he growled. “I want to do it at the next blood delivery. Next week.”

“But-”

“ _I am not waiting any longer,_ ” he hissed. “She made me this way. I will kill her this way.”

“You will _bloody well not_ ,” Anna snapped. “Vandal we are not going to fuck this up.”

He snarled. “Four weeks,” he said. “We have four weeks. By then Therese wants me to choose a _partner_ to run the blood bank with me. And if I don’t find someone suitable _she_ will get someone.”

Anna hesitated for a moment, but then she raised her head defiantly. “Okay,” she said. “Then you have _four weeks_ to get rid of the ghoul. And when you have…you can tell Therese you’ve found someone. Me.”

Vandal swallowed his frustration and considered this. It did have a certain poetry to it. Therese would truly have ordered her own downfall. “Fine,” he grunted.

“Good,” Anna said, satisfied. “Three weeks from now Therese Voerman drinks her death.” She smiled and picked up the glass. “And tonight I drink my health.”

She raised the glass to him and he felt himself grin in spite of himself. She grinned back and drank, emptying the entire glass in three long sips. Vandal watched her closely, but he saw with regret that she hardly reacted. She leaned back on the couch and closed her eyes, breathing deeply. A small blush appeared on her cheeks, but there was no other change. What a _waste_ of vitae.

Suddenly Anna’s breathing hitched and she tensed up. She inhaled deeply and crossed her arms across her stomach. Vandal leaned forward, watching her intently. She must be feeling the heat spreading through her body now. Anna kept breathing deeply and the colour in her face increased a little.

“I can _feel_ you staring at me,” she smiled, still not opening her eyes.

“Sorry,” he said insincerely.

She smiled. “Oh no,” she whispered. “I like you watching me.”

He grinned. Silence filled the apartment until Anna opened her eyes and sat up.

“That was anticlimactic,” Vandal remarked bitterly. What a crying shame.

“Well, I feel great,” Anna said cheerfully and she got to her feet. She held out her hand to him. “Let’s go make something to eat.”

Vandal got to his feet and grabbed her hand. She was warm, warmer than usual. He glanced at the marks on her throat. They were just as vivid, but they did look different somehow.

“I don’t need you to apologize,” Anna said before he could say anything. “But I _do_ expect you to leave worse marks on _her_.”

“ _That_ would be my pleasure,” he said and he followed her to the kitchen, ignoring the half-strangled whispers in his mind. They would fade, like those bruises he left on Anna would fade. They already looked a little less vibrant that a moment before. He had won. He had drunk the Bitch’s blood again and survived.

“Go wash your face,” Anna laughed, opening the fridge. “You’re all bloody still.”

“Hm?” he smirked. “Don’t like admiring your own handiwork?”

She pushed a washcloth into his hands and turned away to hide her smirk. Vandal laughed and took it, wiping his face and walking back to the living room again. He was still wearing his damn coat. He shrugged it off and threw it on the couch. A groan escaped him. His muscles were sore and he was tired. Now his mind had settled down, he was feeling the punishment his body had taken. He heard Anna hum to herself, clattering with cutlery in the kitchen and he grimaced. For someone who had just downright wasted a dose of vitae she was awfully content with herself. He sighed and looked at the box of medical implements that still stood on the coffee table. How long had it been since his last dose of vitae? Not too long ago, but not too recent either. He could really do with something extra. It would give his body a break at least. Thoughtfully he picked up the bottle and searched for a needle. He vaguely remembered Anna saying something about the vitae helping him fight Therese’s blood. Now he thought about it, that might very well be what made him able to fight her influence like he had. In that case he _definitely_ wanted an extra shot.

He filled the syringe all the way. Anna had messed around with the dose several times and it really didn’t matter that much he thought. Skilfully he put the needle in his arm and pushed the plunger with care. Before he could even put away the needle, a searing heat cut straight through his mind and he abruptly lost control of his limbs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oops again? (This is another one of my favourite chapters, could you tell?)


	18. Wish Fulfilment

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Content warnings:** Violence, reference to child abuse, self-inflicted harm.

“You are such a fucking idiot,” Anna breathed for what seemed like the millionth time. “We’re not talking about Aspirins here, you don’t just triple your damn dose!”

Vandal chuckled, lying back comfortably on her bed and studying her fuming face as Anna wrapped herself in her robe. “I guess I forgot,” he grinned. “Just like you _forgot_ to tell me you injected me without my consent.”

Anna’s eyes sparked with anger. “I thought you were going to _die_ ,” she snapped. “I didn’t exactly have a choice.”

“Which is why I _forgive_ you,” Vandal grinned benevolently, making her even angrier.

“You’re an ungrateful, self-destructive, _reckless_ piece of-”

“Ungrateful?” he interrupted her, moving so fast she couldn’t move away before he pulled her back onto the bed. “Wasn’t I awfully _appreciative_ just now?”

“I wouldn’t call that ‘appreciative’,” Anna grumbled. “I’d call it demanding.”

“Same difference,” Vandal hummed and he stroked her neck. The bruises and welts were almost gone. “Besides…you weren’t exactly complaining…”

“You’re damn cocky for a guy who just broke half of my living room furniture,” Anna sniffed.

Vandal laughed. The frantic movements and spasms hadn’t lasted long, but he had managed to break the coffee table and a few chairs while they did. Anna had actually tried to sedate him. _That_ hadn’t worked. He laughed again.

“I don’t see what’s so funny,” she scowled, wriggling free from his grip. “You could have had a heart attack.”

“But I _didn’t_ ,” he said. He felt amazing. He had never felt this good. _Ever_. The world was so _vibrant_. The colours, the sounds, the smells. All of it was more real than it had ever been and at the same time it seemed exactly how it was supposed to be. His mind, his body, they belonged in this world. They had never belonged to any other.

“Go take a shower,” Anna ordered. “You stink.”

“Only if you join me,” Vandal said, moving off the bed to catch her again. Anna opened her mouth but he grabbed her chin and growled: “And _don’t_ start about me not deserving privileges again because what I really want to do is force you down on the bed again and stick a syringe in your neck so you can _feel what I feel_.”

Anna stared into his eyes. “Like I said,” she said. “ _Pretty damn cocky_.”

Vandal groaned and let go of her, changing the groan into a laugh. “You’re so gorgeous when you’re being a stubborn, pissed off little bitch,” he grinned.

Her eyes lit up and she threw her hair over her shoulder. “Honestly,” she said. “The shit I put up with.”

Vandal chuckled and walked towards the bathroom to go take a shower. As he passed Anna, however, she grabbed his arm and stopped him. “What now, princess?” he asked. “I thought you didn’t want to come?”

“You…” she seemed to be studying his naked back. “You had a scar here.” She pressed to fingers just above his left shoulder blade. “A big one.”

“Hm?” he grunted. “Yeah, got it as a kid. Dad smashed me against the radiator and one of the pipes burned me.”

“It’s gone,” Anna said.

Vandal turned around and stared at her. “What?” he said.

“It’s _gone_ ,” she repeated. “There’s nothing there anymore. Your skin is…flawless.”

 _Flawless_. Vandal frowned. “It can’t be,” he said.

Anna made a preoccupied noise and gestured to the bathroom. He followed her there and stood in front of her full-length mirror, glancing over his shoulder so he could see his back in the reflection. Sure enough, there was no scar. Vandal reached up and felt the skin. It was smooth. Indeed, flawless.

“That is…” his voice trailed off. He didn’t understand it. Therese’s blood had never healed old wounds, long accepted by his body. The vitae had never had that effect before. Then again he had never taken so much of it. And he had never felt so _good_ before.

“It must be a side effect of the near overdose,” Anna said, sounding equal parts excited and disconcerted.

Vandal hardly heard her, he was staring in the mirror.

“If the vitae can actually restore tissue _retroactively_ ,” Anna muttered. “That is…amazing. And _incredibly_ dangerous.” She began to pace through the bathroom.

Vandal glanced at her. She was talking to herself more than to him.

“I mean, scar tissue is out of place, but strictly speaking they are healthy cells. If the vitae replaces any cells it deems out of the ordinary, it might actively fuck something up, like it did with the cancer cells!” She gave him a heated look. “If the vitae can do this, what _else_ might it be doing to you?” she asked frantically.

“Shall we find out?” Vandal grinned and before she could stop him he picked up the manicure scissors off Anna’s dresser and stabbed himself in the arm with them.

“Jesus Christ, Vandal!” Anna swore and she yanked the scissors out of his hand.

The pain was very brief and Vandal watched with delighted fascination how under the sudden spurt of blood the ragged edges of flesh fused together again almost instantly. Anna stared with big, shocked eyes. There was no other sound than their bated breath. Vandal felt his skin tingle as it restored itself and he moved his arm. It felt normal. Utterly normal. The blood smearing the skin was literally the only evidence of the cut that had been there mere moments ago. There was a moment of stunned silence before Vandal started laughing.

“We have been misusing your formula, princess!” he snorted in between laughing fits. “We’ve been fucking wasting it taking monthly shots! Why bother with a little strength and health when a proper dose makes you fucking _invincible_.”

“This can’t last,” Anna said frantically. “This cannot be permanent.”

It would last. It had to last. He never wanted to be rid of this feeling. This was better than the first ever sip of Therese’s blood. Better than the first shot of vitae. This was better than his own damn fantasies. Not even the vampires that he had resentfully admired for as long as he had known of their existence could feel as good as he did right now. All they had was living death. _This_ was life. Pure life. The way it always should have been.

“The effects will fade,” Anna said firmly, her voice strained. “We will monitor them closely and-”

Vandal cut her off by picking her up and swinging her around the room, nearly slamming her into the dresser by accident.

“It won’t fade,” he laughed maniacally.

“Put me _down_ ,” Anna protested angrily. “I need to make some notes.”

Vandal burst out laughing again and put her down. “Make notes all you want,” he grinned. “But don’t expect me to give this up. _Ever_.”

Anna scowled at him. “If you touch my vitae without my knowledge again-” she said threateningly.

“If you’re right and this does fade,” he growled. “That is _exactly_ what I’ll do.”

They stared at each other for a moment. Vandal didn’t care what Anna’s issue with this was, but he wasn’t having it. The desire to force the vitae into her system only grew. _She_ should be like this too. Just like him.

“Three days,” Anna said through gritted teeth. “Promise me not to touch the vitae for three days. The effects should start to diminish by then. If they do we can figure out how high a dose you should take to stay in this state. Alright?” She sounded calm, but she most certainly wasn’t.

“Fine,” Vandal said, grinning again. “But they won’t fade.” He could feel they wouldn’t. This felt different. All different. Completely different. And absolutely magnificent.

“They _will_ ,” Anna insisted.

♦

They didn’t. Three days passed and there was no change. Vandal was ecstatic. Anna was _furious_.

“It’s impossible,” she fumed. “It should have at least partially filtered out of your blood by now.”

“I’ll tell you what has filtered out of my blood,” Vandal said smugly. “ _Therese_. I haven’t felt a thing since that night.”

Anna wasn’t listening. She was pushing her fingers angrily into her hair, messing up her hairdo. “It’s _not_ possible,” she insisted. “There must be something else that I-” She let out a wordless scream and nearly stamped her foot.

“Why are you so angry?” Vandal demanded, plucking the hair clip out of her hair to let it loose completely.

“Because it’s unexplainable!” Anna cried. “When you overdose on a drug you either die or your body gets rid of it eventually. The effects don’t become permanent!”

“It’s not a drug, princess,” Vandal said. “It’s the filtered blood of a mythological monster.”

Anna ran her hands through her hair and groaned.

“Did it ever occur to you…” Vandal began. “That this was _meant_ to happen?”

She looked at him. “What do you mean?”

“You wanted to get rid of human weakness,” he grinned. “Now you have.”

“No,” she snarled. “It doesn’t work like that. Unexplained side effects are _never_ good.”

Vandal listened to her angry rambling without trying to interrupt her again. He enjoyed her anger in silence, taking care she wouldn’t start taking it out on him. It was loss of control she was raving about right now. She didn’t understand what had happened to him and she couldn’t stand that. That was a sentiment he could understand at least, but right now he didn’t care about the why. If she could feel what he felt, she wouldn’t care either. But Anna had downright refused to take the vitae again, in any dose or form.

“I want you to undergo a full medical examination,” Anna said suddenly.

“Why?” Vandal asked.

“To find out the other side effects,” she said grimly.

“The negative ones, you mean?” he grinned. “Princess, there are none.”

“There must be,” she snapped.

Vandal pressed his hand to his chest. “You’re so cruel… You’ve inadvertently given me everything I’ve ever wanted and all you want to do is take it away…”

Despite the mocking tone Anna deflated a little. “I don’t _want_ there to be negative side effects,” she said conflictedly.

“But you do want this to fade…” he said, wrapping his arms around her waist.

“I…” She hesitated.

There it was. The first drop of doubt. The first wavering of her mind in his favour. All he had to do was nurture that.

“I’ll go to your check-up,” he said appeasingly. “They can test me for whatever you want.”

She bit her lip and nodded. Her eyes were no longer full of fire, they were dark and worried now. “There’s a private clinic up in Hollywood,” she said. “I’ll book an appointment there.”

Vandal laughed softly. “Alright, little Miss Trust Fund,” he muttered and he ran his fingers through Anna’s hair and coaxed and teased her until she placated him with a quick kiss before hurrying off to call the clinic.

♦

The doctors could find absolutely nothing wrong with Vandal.

“ _Nothing_ ,” Anna hissed, leafing through their extensive report in barely contained frustration.

Vandal swallowed the smug ‘I told you so,’ and sat back patiently. “What did you expect then,” he said. “I don’t feel anything but good, so why should the results be anything but good?”

“I didn’t just ask them to just check your health,” Anna said. “They took blood samples, tissue samples. I…” She slammed the report down on her desk. “ _Something_ should show up on the tests. Even if all the effects are technically positive-”

Vandal chuckled. ‘Technically’. She glared at him and he raised his hands in apology.

“Even _if_ that’s the case,” she resumed. “And the change _is_ permanent, then the vitae must have _altered_ something in you permanently. There should be something in your blood or your soft tissue.”

“And why would their tests be able to pick that up?” Vandal asked. If it was that easy the medical world should have found out about the all the vampires, werewolves and other monstrosities ages ago.

“It should at least show up as some unexplained anomaly,” Anna insisted. “That’s how I found out about the vitae. For ages I didn’t know what I was seeing, but I was sure I was seeing _something_.”

“But that was _you_ , princess,” Vandal charmed her shamelessly. “You can’t really expect others to repeat what only you can do.”

“Why do you think I asked them for their source data,” Anna grumbled.

Vandal laughed. No wonder those doctors at the clinic had been so nervous. “And you can’t find anything either?” he asked.

“Nothing,” she said dejectedly.

“Then there is nothing to find,” he said triumphantly. When she still looked disgruntled, he chucked her under the chin, lifting up her face and smiled at her. “Why argue with a good thing, princess?”

“I can’t work with something I don’t understand!” Anna protested.

“I hate to break it to you but you have, for ages,” Vandal said.

She glared at him, but the concern in her face was far more present than the anger. If she’d only let him give her some vitae all of this would be over. Then she’d understand.

“You’re worried about me,” he coaxed.

Anna gave him an urgent look. “Of course I am,” she said. “Vandal I _love_ you. And from the looks of it…something I made might have turned you into a damn _immortal_.”

His grin widened. Immortal. He drew her closer. “I never heard of any immortal thing that was still living,” he mused. “Isn’t that _wonderful_?”

Anna made a helpless sound and plucked at the fabric of his sleeves.

Vandal watched her fidget. This was so unlike her. _Love_ …

“Why should you worry now?” he asked deliberately. “When I’m stronger than I’ve ever been…” He caught her gaze and held it, looking into her eyes intently. “If you want to worry about something,” he muttered. “Worry about what you’re about to do to me.”

She frowned. “What do you mean?” she muttered.

“Why won’t you take your own vitae, Anna?” he said seriously. “You won’t even take enough to keep yourself tolerably strong.”

She opened her mouth, but he wouldn’t let her speak.

“You’re not going to leave me to live forever on my own, are you?” he said, bringing something of pleading into his voice.

Anna’s face changed. She coloured slightly and seemed at a loss for words. This approach was working, he was getting to her.

“This is _perfection_ , Anna,” he said solemnly.

She seemed struck by the repeated use of her name and shifted uncomfortably in his embrace.

“It’s goddamn perfection, but it won’t be quite perfect without you.”

“I… We can’t be sure how it works,” she hesitated.

“So experiment,” Vandal urged her. “That’s what you do best, princess.”

“There’s no time,” Anna said unhappily. “We hardly have three weeks left until Therese expects you to show up with her new toy.”

“So?” Vandal smirked.

“So,” Anna fretted. “So I haven’t got the blood ready, I was a _little_ preoccupied. Plus I still have to process data for the stupid clinic! And if I am to do experiments I’d need subjects to experiment _on_.”

“How much time do you need to get the blood ready?” Vandal asked.

“A couple days,” Anna said unhappily.

“So finish that first,” Vandal said calmly. “That way it’ll be ready when we need it. When you’re done I’ll help you get whatever subject you want and you’ll have two whole weeks to experiment to your heart’s content. In the meantime, I’ll let Therese know I’ve found a suitable candidate that I am _preparing_ to be introduced to her.”

Anna bit her lip.

Vandal slanted his head. “So, what kind of subject do you need? One of the patients at the clinic?”

“Well no,” Anna said with a sigh. “If we’re going to overdose them on vitae and try out how long the effects last and how far they go we can hardly let them live afterwards.”

“Ah, _my_ kind of subject then,” he grinned. “Wonderful.” He squeezed her sides and hummed contently. “In that case I’ll get you a nice young girl, someone a little like you, hm?”

“Actually…” Anna said thoughtfully.

“Yes?” he prompted. Whatever she wanted he would get her. The concern and frustration were sliding off her already in favour of her natural curiosity and obsessiveness.

“I should first study what the vitae has done to _you_ exactly,” she pondered. “So that means I’d need a subject as close to you as we can get.”

A grin spread across Vandal’s face wide enough to bare all his teeth. “You need a _ghoul_ ,” he said eagerly.

“Well, for lack of a closer substitute, yes,” Anna admitted.

Perfect. He couldn’t think of anything he’d rather be doing his last weeks in Santa Monica. “I’ll get you a ghoul to play with, princess,” he said, full of dark pleasure. “I know someone that’ll be perfect.”

“Vandal,” she said suspiciously. “Don’t pick someone important, we can’t afford to draw attention to ourselves.”

“Of course not,” Vandal tutted. “I’ll be _very_ careful.”

“I mean it, Vandal,” Anna frowned.

Always so _serious_. “Don’t worry,” he said. “I have someone in mind that’s stupid enough to come with me voluntarily. Especially when he hears I have a potential new _friend_ for him to meet.”

♦

Knox was clearly surprised to see Vandal away from the blood bank. “Vandal, dude,” he grinned. “What are you doing here?”

“Looking for you,” Vandal said. He took care not to sound too friendly. Knox already looked a bit suspicious and suddenly acting like his friend would definitely make him distrust the situation.

“Yeah?” Knox said. “What’s up, man?”

Vandal pulled a dissatisfied face. “Therese told me to find a new ghoul to help at the blood bank,” he told him. “And…I wanted to ask for your help.” He made sure to sound appropriately resentful.

Knox looked even more surprised now, but he also looked flattered. “What do you need my help with?” he asked curiously. “Can’t you find someone?”

“No,” Vandal said. “I know who I want, Anna Deering, a girl at the hospital.”

The smile that was rarely absent on Knox’ face widened into a grin. “Yo, that’s the girl you’re hitting right?”

Vandal grimaced. Filthy snooping Nosferatu. “Yeah,” he admitted.

Knox laughed. “Aw man,” he shook his head. “You’re getting your boss to team you up with your chick, that’s awesome.”

“Except I don’t know if she’ll do it,” Vandal said.

“Hey, what’s not to like,” Knox grinned. “We get to live longer, we don’t get hurt, we get to know all the cool secrets.” He laughed. “I mean, Therese’s a bit scary – no offence dude – but we don’t _age_ , your chick will dig that, right?”

“Hm,” Vandal hummed. ‘I’m just not so good at the marketing side of things.” He grimaced. “I was wondering…if you’d talk to her.”

Knox bounced on the balls of his feet and grinned. “Sure, dude,” he said. “But, have you told her anything so far?”

“She knows I’m a ghoul,” Vandal muttered. “She knows about Therese. I haven’t dared to whisper any other secrets in her ear.”

“Alright,” Knox said cheerfully, clearly getting into the idea. “Sure, I’ll talk to her. When do you want to do this thing?”

“Now?” Vandal suggested. “She should be nearly done with her shift by now…”

“No problem, dude,” Knox grinned. “I’ll help you out.”

Vandal grinned back. Of course he would. “I appreciate it, Knox,” he said. “I’ll ask Anna to get to the blood bank.”

“Man,” Knox chuckled, walking with him while Vandal took out his phone to text Anna. “I’ve never seen inside the blood bank. This is so cool.”

Vandal didn’t answer that. This was almost too easy. Knox hadn’t even asked for a return favour. It did occur to him that Knox might think that getting some first-hand intelligence on Therese Voerman’s affairs was worth his trouble regardless, but luckily Knox wouldn’t get the chance to pass anything on to Bertram Tung.

“Make yourself comfortable,” Vandal grinned at Knox when they entered the blood bank. “I so rarely have visitors in my humble home away from home.”

Knox laughed and sat down looking around curiously. “Pretty bleak man,” he said. “I’m glad I don’t have your job. I gotta be on my feet, chasing a lead, y’know?”

“No, I don’t,” Vandal replied flatly.

Knox chattered on until they heard footsteps in the hallway. He slanted his head. “That your girl?” he asked.

“I cannot imagine who else would voluntarily come down here,” Vandal grinned sinisterly.

“Yeah,” Knox snickered. _He_ looked positively stoked to be there.

There was a soft knock on the door. Vandal smiled. No doubt Anna would make it an elaborate performance. “Vandal?” her voice called out softly.

“Come in, sweetling,” he called back. “My _friend_ is here already.”

The door opened and Anna stepped in. Vandal was looking at Knox to see his reaction. Just like he suspected there was a great deal of surprise on his face. Whatever he had expected to see, it wasn’t someone like Anna. Vandal smirked and Knox gave him a sideways glance that was clearly impressed. When Vandal turned his attention to Anna he had to repress an incredulous laugh. Pigtails? They had agreed Anna would play a little innocent, but this was really a bit much. She looked like a shy little girl.

“Hi,” she said, plucking at the cuffs of her lab coat. Vandal saw she had put one on that was just a little too big for her.

“Anna, this is Knox,” Vandal said, rising languidly from his seat. “He’s…like me.” Well, he _used_ to be.

“Hello,” she said nervously, looking at Knox, who immediately sprang to his feet to shake her hand.

“Awesome to meet you, Anna!” he grinned. “The name’s Knox Harrington. Hey! Welcome to Santa Monica, girl!”

“I’m not that new anymore,” she giggled walking over to Vandal as if she expected him to do something. He wordlessly pushed the chair he had been sitting on forward a little and she sat down, he stood behind her, leaning on the chair with one hand, resting the other possessively on her shoulder.

Knox glanced at him, but Vandal didn’t make eye contact. Anna had been convinced playing impressionable and sweet would be the easiest way for her to gain Knox’ trust and since Vandal knew Knox would never buy it if he played the caring type, possessive and creepy would do just fine.

“So you like it here?” Knox asked in a friendly tone of voice.

“Yes,” Anna replied, nervously pressing her hands together. “But it’s been hard meeting nice people. Vandal’s been really good to me.”

Vandal swallowed the laughter brewing inside him and smirked instead.

“Yeah, he’s an awesome dude,” Knox grinned. “And I should know.”

Anna shifted in her seat and Vandal tightened the grip on her shoulder just a little.

“So…you’re a ‘ghoul’ to?” Anna whispered.

“Hell yeah, girl!” Knox laughed. “It’s all kinds of awesome, let me tell you.”

“How long have you been one?” she asked curiously.

“Like a year? I don’t know man, time flies when you’re having fun,” Knox chuckled.

“It didn’t sound _all_ fun…” Anna said doubtfully looking up at Vandal.

He looked into her eyes and grinned at the dark sparks of amusement hidden deep inside them. “What I say and what I mean are infuriatingly different things,” he said. “Ask Knox your questions, sweetling, he’ll do a better job.”

“It’s _awesome_ ,” Knox jumped in eagerly. “We don’t get tired or hurt as easily and when we do we heal up real quick. And you get better at everything!” He tapped the side of his nose. “Back when I was human I was a pretty good tracker, but now I’m just about the best investigator in Santa Monica!”

Vandal started playing with one of Anna’s pigtails to hide his amusement.

“That wounds wonderful,” Anna said.

“It is,” Knox assured her.

“Did…did it hurt?” she asked, swallowing a stammer.

If Vandal hadn’t known for a fact she was faking it, he would have believed the fear in her voice. He didn’t like that. He was able to tell when she lied about information, he should be able to tell when she was faking an emotion.

“No!” Knox said. “Girl, who told you that? It feels amazing. Especially the first time.” He leaned forward excitedly. “That first taste of vampire blood…it’s like the best drug. And it doesn’t mess you up or nothing, only makes you feel better. It makes you feel like a god, girl.”

Anna looked up at Vandal and he saw the disgust flickering behind her eyes before she asked demurely: “Is it really that good?”

“Divine, sweetling,” he answered.

“See?” Knox said encouragingly. “And you’d be taken care of. Santa Monica can be pretty dangerous, but vampires look out for their ghouls.”

“Yes…” Anna muttered.

“And you’d never be alone,” Knox grinned. “”You’d have Vandal and all us other ghouls.”

Vandal grimaced. He made it sound like a damn secret club. Moreover, Vandal thought he really meant it, he wasn’t just saying this to convince Anna. Still, Anna had been right, Knox was buying into her act exactly as she had expected. He was trying really hard to make her feel comfortable. While Knox talked convincingly to Anna Vandal took out his phone and pretended to read a text.

“Something wrong, dude?” Knox asked.

“No...” Vandal said, sounding suitably unconvincing. “I have to take care of something.” He gave Anna a squeeze in her shoulder and she made herself small in her chair. “I’ll only be a moment,” he grimaced, but on his way to the door he leaned forward to mutter into Knox’s ear. “I’d appreciate it if you kept an eye on my sweetling, but kept your hands to yourself… So few people know how to look without touching nowadays.”

“Sure thing,” Knox said, moving away a little.

“Splendid,” Vandal grinned and he turned back to glance at Anna. “Be good…”

He closed the door behind him and walked calmly to the freezer area to wait. “Let’s see how fast you work, princess,” he muttered to himself.

♦

Anna was beginning to understand why Vandal had been so insistent they use this guy. He just would not shut up. And if he had been a ghoul in Santa Monica for a year, Vandal would have had to put up with him for as long. No wonder he wanted to off the guy. Anna was patient though, listening to everything he said with awe in her wide eyes. His devotion to his master was pathetic, but at least mildly interesting. It did not seem to have the nearly sexual component she had observed in the few ghouls she had studied before Vandal. Knox just seemed to think his master was the coolest guy around.

“I don’t know…” she said with a sigh when Knox finally gave her an opportunity to speak. “ _Your_ master sounds amazing, but Miss Voerman scares me.”

Knox grinned sympathetically. “Therese is a hard one, sure. But she’s one of the most influential vampires around, girl! Working for her must be so cool.”

God this guy was a moron. She tugged at her left pigtail and gave Knox a scared look.

“Hey,” he said, lowering his voice to a gentler tone. “What are you so afraid of, girl? I know the whole vampire thing is pretty ‘woah’, but…” He frowned lightly. “Vandal’s not…like…he takes good care of you right?”

Anna smiled a demure smile instead of the triumphant smirk she felt inside her. Knox had taken the bait.

“He does!” she said hastily. “He really does, except…” She glanced over her shoulder nervously. “I think... I think Therese makes him do some bad stuff,” she whispered.

“Well,” Knox said, a little doubtful. “There’s a lot of stuff that goes on, y’know. Stuff that needs taking care of. We have to look out for our masters, that doesn’t make us bad guys.”

“Yeah…” Anna said hesitantly and suddenly she took a deep gulping breath and burst forth: “But sometimes when I ask too many questions Vandal gets really angry and there’s this strange room with stuff he showed me once, but I freaked out and he hasn’t let me near it since. And when Miss Voerman calls he always seems so scared and I _want_ to be with him and you’re really nice to me, but I just don’t know!”

“Woah, woah!” Knox tried to calm her. “What are you talking about, girl? What’s this about a room?”

Anna swallowed. “There’s a hidden room…in one of the freezers… I don’t think anyone in the hospital knows about it.”

Knox’s expression changed and Anna could feel the combined forces of his natural curiosity and the illusion of her weakness work their magic. Whether he thought he could use her to get information or was convinced that she needed his help didn’t matter in the end. As long as he didn’t see her as a threat.

“I’m sure it’s nothing, girl,” Knox said after a moment of rare silence. “”Why don’t you show me? I’m sure I can explain it to you.”

So it was information he wanted most of all. Anna was actually a little impressed. He sounded genuinely comforting and trustworthy. The moron wasn’t a bad actor.

“What if Vandal finds out?” she whispered. “I don’t want him to get mad…”

Knox's comforting grin widened a little. “He won’t mind you showing me,” he said. “We’re buddies, girl!”

Not a bad liar at all… “Alright,” Anna said, taking care to make her voice catch nervously. She got up, fidgeting with her cuffs and for a moment she thought Knox might actually take her hand, but he didn’t.

They slipped out of the blood bank and Knox followed her to the freezer room. Anna opened the first freezer, widening her eyes anxiously.

“It’s in here,” she whispered. “Only…if he changed the code I can’t open the door.”

“Try anyway,” Knox encouraged. He was looking around with a nonchalance that _almost_ managed to mask the great attention he was paying to every little detail.

Anna punched the code into the keypad, wondering if Knox carried some sort of weapon. He probably did, but she hadn’t spotted any on him yet. The door opened and revealed the passage behind.

“Um…” she stammered. “I think last time Vandal pulled this lever.” She stepped forward and pulled the lever, opening the door into the backroom.

She felt Knox right behind her, almost close enough to touch her and if she had been playing a less submissive persona she would have bumped into him on purpose. Instead she quickly stepped into the room and waited until he had done the same before she turned on the lights. The glaring fluorescent lights lit up the bleak, blood splattered room with a shocking abruptness and Knox made a distressed noise in the back of his throat.

“Aw _man_ ,” he muttered. “What the hell is this?”

Anna didn’t answer, but she made enough scared whimpering noises to cover up the sound of Vandal entering through the hidden door, that had not yet closed behind them. Before Knox knew what was going on Vandal had grabbed him from behind, wrapping his arm around his neck so tightly it cut off his oxygen supply. Anna let out a small cry and fled to a corner of the room. She was having fun.

“What have we here?” Vandal growled.

Knox tried to wrestle free of the chokehold and Anna saw with delight that Vandal wasn’t even breaking a sweat having to hold him. He was _considerably_ stronger.

“I didn’t…touch her…” Knox rasped, fighting for breath.

“No?” Vandal chuckled. “I’m disappointed.” He caught one of Knox’ flailing arms and forced it down to his side. “Is that true, _sweetling_?”

Before Anna could answer, Knox made another valiant effort to defend himself and Vandal had to try a little harder to hold him. He pressed him up against the wall, muttering something vicious and Knox stopped making any other sounds than choking. Anna felt her heart flutter inside her ribcage. She leaned against the wall, biting her lip. This wasn’t like that Heather girl or that surfer boy, Vandal really wanted to hurt this guy. She could tell. She wished he’d turn around so she could see his face again.

♦

Vandal was almost sorry when Knox stopped moving. As much as he was enjoying the confirmation of his now clearly superior strength, he would have appreciated a proper fight. He didn’t release the grip on Knox’ throat until he was certain he was truly unconscious. When he was, Vandal dragged him towards the nearest chair. As he tightened the restraints around his wrists, he thought of the countless times he had dreamed of dragging Knox back here and slicing through his voice box. This truly was a time of dreams coming through.

“You know I dislike gags,” he grunted, addressing Anna. “But for him I’ll make an exception.”

Anna giggled and watched as he gagged the still unconscious Knox and then moved on to strap down his feet. As he gripped him round the ankles, he felt something hard. With a contemptuous scoff Vandal pulled out a small pistol and held it out to Anna.

“ _Guns_ ,” he hissed scornfully.

Anna took the gun and after a moment’s hesitation she put it down on the counter. When Knox was securely strapped in, Vandal turned towards her with a grin.

“Go on, prepare your vitae,” he said urgently. “Patience was never my strong suit and I cannot _wait_ to get my hands on this moron at long fucking _last_.” There was no way of knowing how long it would take the vitae to take over his body and he was sure Anna wouldn’t let him have any fun with him before he had reached a stable condition again.

“Yes…” Anna hummed absentmindedly, staring at Knox.

“Princess,” Vandal said impatiently.

She made no answer.

“ _Anna_ ,” he growled.

Anna startled out of her thoughts and turned her head towards him. Those ridiculous pigtails swung when she moved her head.

“I was just thinking,” she said. “Will these restraints hold him?”

“Why wouldn’t they?” Vandal asked. “They even held the thin blood.”

“ _Thin_ blood,” Anna said critically. “You’ve never had an actual vampire in here, have you?”

“Of course not,” he grimaced.

“Then we can’t be sure,” Anna said. “You saw how easily you overpowered him.”

He smirked at her. That was true enough.

Anna glanced over the chair with Knox in it and shook her head. “No,” she said. “I don’t trust it. We need to know that thing is strong enough to hold _you_.” There was a subtle change in her expression all of a sudden.

Vandal narrowed his eyes at her. He knew that look and he usually liked it, but at the moment, not so much. “Is that supposed to mean what I think it means,” he grunted. “Because it better not.”

“Well, it _would_ be the easiest way to find out,” Anna replied nonchalantly. A smile sparked in her eyes. “I promise I’ll behave.”

Yeah, right. “I don’t think so, princess,” Vandal growled.

“Fine,” she said, a dissatisfied look cooling the spark in her eyes. “Then we’ll have to build up the dose of vitae slowly over a couple of days, testing his strength as we go along. We can’t run the risk of him escaping.”

Vandal hissed angrily. She always had to get her way. “I installed these myself,” he snapped. “They will hold him, they will hold _anybody_.”

“Maybe,” Anna said. “And maybe not. Either way I’m not taking the risk. So we’ll have to do it the slow way.”

He scowled.

“Or…” she said, slanting her head. “You could just sit down real quick and test whether this thing is strong enough to hold…whatever you are now.”

From the way she looked at him Vandal could tell she knew he would give in and he resented that. But she was right, this was the only way to be sure Knox wouldn’t break free and they could _not_ risk him breaking free. “Fine,” he grunted.

Anna managed to keep her smug grin in check, but the delight in her eyes was all too clear.

“You look like you’re going to enjoy this way too much,” Vandal grumbled, sitting down in the empty chair.

She let out a giggle and Vandal grimaced as she tightened the restraints on his wrists. She was _definitely_ enjoying this.

“Keep your feet still,” she grinned, kneeling down.

Vandal snarled. There was no way he was letting her tie him up completely.

Anna took a step back and planted her hands on her hips. “Do you want that idiot to escape?” she said, giving a nod in Knox’s direction. “He may be a blubbering moron but he was a bounty hunter. And we can’t drug him without messing up our data about the vitae.”

 _Data_. She was so insistent on pretending this was all work, while it was really all play. He grumbled.

“Come on…” Anna teased. “Don’t you _trust_ me?”

This had _nothing_ to do with trust. He glared at her and she came to sit on his lap, making soft, amused noises. Instinctually he tried to raise his arms to grab her by the waist and he couldn’t. Anna laughed.

Vandal rolled his eyes and hissed: “Get it _over_ with then.”

Anna quickly slid off his lap and restrained his feet. She took a step back and nodded at him. “There,” she said. “Try to get loose.”

Vandal tensed his arms and legs, fighting against the bonds. They creaked, but nothing happened. Just like he expected. “Safe and secure,” he grunted. “Now untie me.”

“You’re not tied up,” Anna corrected. “You’re strapped down, and you didn’t even _try_.”

He narrowed his eyes and tried again to humour her. He didn’t _like_ this and the way she was looking at him was _not_ helping. Anna could hardly stop herself from smiling and her eyes were positively lit up. She was getting off on this and while he would normally have enjoyed playing into her desires, he disliked being so helpless and he downright resented being in the exact same position as Knox. He tried again, straining both his arms and legs. Nothing. The restraints did not give way.

“Honestly, Vandal,” Anna said. “That’s a _little_ pathetic.” She reached out her hand and before he realized what was happening she had turned off the lights.

The sudden contrast made Vandal completely blind for a moment. He could hear her moving in the dark and his entire body tensed up. “Turn the fucking lights back on, Anna,” he barked. “ _Now_.”

There was a loud snap and the lights went back on. Anna was leaning against the wall with a smug look on her face. “Well, would you look at that,” she said, looking at the bonds that were no longer restraining his arms, but broken open.

Vandal kicked hard and freed his legs as well. The bolts that held the chair fixed to the floor creaked dangerously.

“I _think_ some reinforcements are in order,” Anna said. “Before I pump Mr. Harrington here full of vitae.”

“Hm,” Vandal grunted, getting out of the chair. Adrenaline was rushing through his body. He took a steadying breath.

Anna gave him a self-satisfied smile and he smirked at her.

“Yes, yes, _fine_.” he said. “You were right. But do you want to talk about how much you _enjoyed_ that?” Now he was free he could appreciate the look in her eyes a little more and he was pretty sure she had actually looked more excited when he had broken free from his bonds than when she was strapping him down. That was rather telling.

“Oh it was fun seeing your squirm,” she grinned. “But you don’t have to worry, I’ll leave the bedroom bondage in _your_ depraved and capable hands.”

Vandal snorted and gave her a sideways glance, while pretending to study the damage to the chair.

Anna turned around, hiding her face from him and hummed: “I won’t promise anything about blindfolds though…”

“You think I couldn’t still find you in the dark?” he growled.

“Of course you could,” Anna teased. “I just think the chase would be a whole lot more interesting.”

Vandal looked her up and down, standing there on a blood splattered floor, beside an unconscious ghoul, making bedroom eyes at him. “Take out those pigtails,” he ordered. “They don’t suit you.”

“You do it,” she challenged him laughingly.

Vandal grabbed her and pushed her down into the empty chair with enough force to make her squeal with surprise. He grabbed one of the braids and stood behind her, undoing it with a devoted determination.

“I’ll get some ropes as extra bonds,” he said, starting on the other braid. “And see to it that all the bolts are well fastened, but we’re giving him the vitae _tomorrow_.”

“Fine with me,” Anna said.

Vandal raked his fingers firmly through her hair, making her hum disapprovingly every time he pulled through a knot or tangle.

When he was done Anna shook her hair and looked up at him amusedly. “Better?” she asked.

“For now,” he grunted, putting the hair ties he had taken out in his pocket. He wanted her to keep it loose the rest of the night. When she tried to get up he pushed her back down in the chair. He didn’t even know what he wanted. No, he _did_ know what he wanted. He wanted this all to go well. He wanted Knox to react to the vitae exactly like he had done, so Anna would finally agree to use it herself and become like him. When he didn’t say or do anything, Anna tried to get up again, but he grabbed a handful of her hair and kept her in place. Couldn’t she just sit still and stay for one second?

“You are very demanding all of a sudden,” Anna sighed dramatically and she looked up at him, pulling a face. “Well, never mind,” she smiled, sinking her voice invitingly. “You’ll feel better tomorrow when we can start playing with your friend...”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m sure Bertram Tung knows what kind of business Therese has Vandal run, but I don’t think he would have told Knox. He’s a relatively new ghoul and for all his faults, I don’t think he would be okay with the idea of innocent people being kidnapped.
> 
> Sorry Knox, this is rapidly turning into All Ghouls Must Die and you were an easy target.


	19. Patience is a Virtue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Content warnings:** Very graphic violence, explicit torture.
> 
> [You can find a censored version of this chapter [here](http://archiveofourown.org/works/10889241/chapters/24880341).]

Vandal was rather surprised when Knox was still unconscious when he returned early the following evening to work on restraining him more securely. For a while he even wondered if he had perhaps choked him for too long. So far Anna had said nothing about the vitae’s effectiveness in treating brain damage and this was not really the time to find out if it had any. All he needed to do _now_ was convince Anna that the vitae was capable of creating flawless, _living_ immortality. It sounded preposterous, even to him, but Vandal could _feel_ the truth of it coursing through his veins. Well, why shouldn’t it be true? Why _shouldn’t_ it be possible? If vampire blood held the key to immortality in death, why shouldn’t it also hold the secret to immortality in life.

When Vandal began tightening the ropes he had brought around Knox’s arms he came to. Only now did it occur to Vandal that he might not have been unconscious the entire time. He had probably awoken during the day and simply passed out from exhaustion after hours of uselessly struggling to break free. He chuckled softly and Knox opened his eyes, staring at him wildly.

“Hello, Knox,” Vandal smirked. “Lovely evening, don’t you think?”

Knox didn’t make a sound, he didn’t struggle either. His eyes were the only thing that moved, darting frantically through the room.

“No, Anna isn’t here,” Vandal chuckled.

Knox’s eyes fixed on his intently and Vandal smirked.

“What? You think I hurt her? Perhaps as punishment for bringing _you_ here?” he asked mockingly.

Knox didn’t avert his eyes. He didn’t look scared, he looked like an animal biding its time to attack. What a _pity_ that time would never come.

“Are you _worried_ about her?” Vandal whispered sharply. “Because I don’t think you are… I don’t think you care about anyone except yourself right now. Well, my _sweetling_ will be joining us shortly. By all means, ask her for help.” He laughed and this time the first flicker of fear sparked in Knox’s eyes.

Vandal finished tying him up without Knox trying to fight or even speak. Rather disappointing actually, but Vandal was sure there would be some entertainment as soon as Anna joined them.

Sure enough, when the hidden door opened and Anna came in Knox immediately raised his head to look at her. For a moment hope flashed in his eyes and Vandal _relished_ it. It didn’t take Knox more than a moment, however, to see the complete change in Anna’s demeanour. He shrank back and Vandal laughed. Anna was wearing a buttoned up lab coat and was carrying not only her medical supplies, but also her notebook and audio recorder. With her hair pulled back and a face graced with a confident smile, she couldn’t be further from the silly girl she played last night.

“That looks a lot better,” she said approvingly, nodding in Knox’s direction.

“I’m glad the lady is satisfied,” Vandal grinned. “You got everything we need?”

“Everything _I_ need, certainly,” Anna said cheerfully. “I didn’t bring any toys for _you_. Surely you brought your own?”

“Naturally,” Vandal replied darkly and he saw the fear increasing on Knox’s face.

His eyes were following Anna suspiciously through the room as she walked to a convenient counter to lay out her things. Vandal watched with great enjoyment how she placed a vial of vitae, two other drug bottles, four syringes, her notebook, a box of gloves, some disinfectant and her recorder neatly side by side. She was…remarkable. There was nothing in her calm, cheerful, professional exterior that could betray what she was about to do. If someone took her out of this bloodstained backroom and placed her in a bright, clean sickroom with a peacefully sleeping patient, she would not look out of place at all.

“So…” Anna said calmly and she pressed the button on her recorder. “Mr. Knox Harrington.”

Vandal grimaced. She was going to take notes and everything. Well, everything for scientific integrity, right?

Knox stared at Anna with alarm and disbelief. She smiled sweetly at him and began to put on her latex gloves. “And how are we feeling today?” she asked in a macabre parody of the doctor she had never wanted to be.

Vandal laughed and she shot him a brilliant smile. He retreated into a corner, leaning against a cabinet. This was Anna’s show. His turn would come later. He might wish that she would let go of that endless restraint of hers and gave in to her pleasure a little more, but he could tell she was enjoying this and he would not interfere. He would let her do this her way.

“Well,” she said brightly after making a few notes. “Let’s get started.”

She grabbed the disinfectant, but when she walked towards Knox he began fighting against the ropes that held him and screamed at her. Anna actually rolled her eyes and grabbed Knox by the hair to clean his neck. The words of his threats blurred together behind the fabric in his mouth, but Vandal could hear the frantic anger that was meant to cover up the fear. Knox was scared, but he wasn’t quite terrified yet, he still thought he could fight. When Anna carefully filled the first syringe with vitae and came towards him again, he tried to kick his legs free and threw his head wildly from side to side. He did _not_ want to let her near his face with that syringe. Anna grabbed his hair again and yanked Knox’s head to the side. Vandal felt his grin widen involuntarily and the angry hiss Anna let out when Knox managed to pull his head free from her grasp, sent a pleasant shiver down his spine. She was _made_ for cruelty. In time he would make her see how much she truly enjoyed this. He would teach her to give in to that glittering darkness once and for all.

“Lie _still_ ,” Anna snapped and she held up the syringe. “Do you want me to break this needle off in your neck?”

She sounded genuinely annoyed, Vandal thought. He nearly let a sigh escape his lips. What a pity she didn’t appreciate fear.

Knox swore at Anna through the gag and thrashed even more.

“Vandal?” she said, staring down on Knox coldly. “Would you mind?”

“My pleasure…” he grinned and he walked over and grabbed Knox’s head. He jerked and struggled, but Vandal merely laughed, bent his head to the side to expose his neck and held it firmly in place.

“Thank you,” Anna hummed pleasantly and she brought the syringe to Knox’s neck. “Now, this is either going to make you feel amazing,” she said cheerfully. “Or it’s going to kill you. Let’s find out.”

Knox’s muffled screams lasted long enough for Anna to fill the second syringe. Vandal patiently held Knox’s head in place and chuckled at Anna’s stubbornness in sticking to medical protocol. She refused to use the same syringe twice. As she gave Knox the second injection, his screams began to sound more like groans. These were noises of pain, no longer those of anger and fear.

“This should be interesting,” Vandal grinned and he stepped back to watch. He remembered the searing heat that had paralysed him for a moment when he had injected himself and it seemed like Knox was experiencing something similar. Only _much_ worse. His eyes had opened wide, but they were darting around wildly and uncontrolled. Spasms were pulling through his arms and legs, making him jerk strangely in his bonds.

Anna was scribbling notes hastily, but abruptly put her notebook down when Knox began to make a gagging sound. She quickly untied the gag and held up Knox’s head to allow him to breathe more easily. Her skilful movements were almost gentle, _almost_ concerned. But not quite.

“He’s overheating,” Anna said. “And his heart is going _crazy_.”

Vandal made no reply, he was watching Knox struggle for breath. He looked like he might actually die. He had _dreamed_ of watching this blabbermouth die. Anna had meanwhile grabbed a clean syringe and a bottle of medicine and was carefully measuring a dose. Vandal stepped forward to hold Knox’s head again, that was rolling involuntarily from side to side now, but Anna inserted the needle into his upper arm instead.

“Veins are veins,” she shrugged, when he raised an eyebrow at her. “And we’re not in a hurry.”

“Then why bother with an injection in the neck?” Vandal grunted. Come to think of it, she had never given him an injection anywhere but in his arm. Or had she?

Anna glanced at him and their eyes met for a second before she turned back to Knox.

Vandal grinned widely. It was because she _preferred it_. So she had some irrational inclinations of her own after all. “What did you just give him?” he asked, covering up the amusement in his voice.

“A vasodilator,” Anna said, feeling Knox’s neck. “Your temperature rose too, but not _this_ dramatically. This might help his body get rid of the heat…and if his heart rate goes down a bit that wouldn’t be bad either.”

Vandal hummed thoughtfully. So she had been prepared for this. Anna _really_ wanted Knox to survive. He supposed he should too. If he died Anna would probably start mistrusting her research on the vitae completely and he couldn’t have that. It seemed like Knox was breathing more regularly now. He was not quite unconscious, but certainly not responsive.

“You were like that,” Anna said nodding sharply in Knox’s direction. “I didn’t know what the hell to do with you.”

Vandal grimaced. “I remember you screaming that at me for ten minutes straight after I came to, yeah,” he sneered.

She shot him a dirty look and didn’t answer.

“How long did it last?” he asked after a moment’s silence. He didn’t remember anything except the intense heat of his body and the coolness of Anna’s hands.

“Quarter of an hour, twenty minutes?” she replied doubtfully.

A remarkably intense spasm went through Knox’s body and he groaned painfully.

“This is much worse than with you though,” Anna observed. “It must be the stronger presence of parasite blood.”

She went back to taking notes and Vandal heaved an impatient sigh. This was going too slowly. Did they really have to just wait around for something to happen? That could take hours.

Anna smirked and threw him a taunting glance. “Patience is a virtue, you know,” she said.

“Exactly,” he growled. “I want nothing to do with it.”

She laughed and gestured to the door. “Go on then,” she said. “I’ll stay here to look after our patient.”

Vandal hesitated. If the vitae worked Knox would be as strong as he was by the time he regained consciousness again and although he was securely retrained, leaving Anna alone with him still didn’t sit quite right with him. If the vitae _didn’t_ work and the idiot actually died, he really didn’t want to miss that either. But sitting here doing nothing was driving him mad. Moreover, the blood bank had been unattended for a while now…

“Fine,” he said. “Promise not to do anything fun without me.”

“I’ll have my fun now, you’ll have yours later,” she winked.

He laughed and Anna blew him a kiss. Vandal grinned to himself as he left. It didn’t matter if Knox died. It didn’t matter if the vitae worked like he wanted it to or not. Anna had helped him kidnap someone he hated and had stood over him with the tools of her trade, mocking her medical profession with everything she did. The vague images he had had of her before in connection with her stories about experiments on the hunters’ prisoners now solidified into a delicious reality. A reality that was better than what he had imagined. Because it turned out there really was no difference between the Anna standing over a patient she wished to save and a victim she planned to kill. Her voice, her smiles, her delicate movements, they were all the same. ‘It’s all the same thing,’ she had told him long ago, before he had had any idea of what she was capable of. And she was right. It was all the same. _They_ were the same. He would not need to _convince_ Anna of anything. All she needed was a little more encouragement.

♦

It was nearly an hour before Vandal felt his phone buzz in his pocket. He grabbed it immediately.

*He’s stable and sleeping. Wanna come wake him up?*

Vandal grinned widely and texted back: *YES*

There had been a couple customers at the blood bank and some of them had remarked on his absence earlier, but he didn’t care. As far as Therese was concerned he was busy looking for an assistant already. If Anna thought the vitae had done its work that meant having to test how well it worked and _that_ meant it was finally _his_ turn. His phone buzzed again.

*Bring me back a coffee? x*

With a snicker Vandal texted back: *Are you sure that’s according to protocol?*

*It is according to mine,* she replied

Vandal smiled. *Just a little vitae, princess,* he sent. *And you’ll never feel tired again.*

There was a short pause before the reply came: *Two sugars.*

Snorting he put the phone back in his pocket, locked the blood bank and went to fetch Anna her coffee. When he entered the backroom Anna was unpacking more equipment from her bag. Knox hung limply in the chair, asleep, but with a cramped expression on his face.

“Mmm, thank you,” Anna hummed, taking the coffee he silently offered her.

He glanced at the things she had been laying out. “You want to take blood samples?” he asked, nodding at the tubes.

“Yes,” she answered, taking a long sip of coffee. “And _then_ you can take over.”

Vandal grinned, walked over to the chair and smacked Knox in his face. His head jerked up and his eyes flew open.

“Welcome back,” Anna said cheerfully. “How do you feel?”

“Fuck you!” Knox spat.

“No need to be rude,” Vandal smiled viciously.

“What the hell did you do to me?” Knox yelled, struggling against the ropes. They creaked dangerously, but held. Knox’s eyes widened in shock.

“Look, he feels it too,” Vandal grinned at Anna.

“Well, you certainly _look_ better, Mr. Harrington,” Anna said in her sing-song voice. “Let’s take some of your blood to see if I can find out why.”

“Get away from me, you bitch!” Knox howled.

Anna’s eyes narrowed and Vandal grabbed him by the throat. He squeezed hard enough to make Knox gag and Anna calmly inserted a needle in his arm, in one of the exposed spots not covered by the ropes.

“Mind your manners,” Vandal growled. “And hold your halfwit tongue for once.”

Knox’s eyes were wide with fear now, but anger was still fighting to gain the upper hand. Vandal didn’t release the pressure on his neck and Knox held still to be able to continue breathing, but Vandal could feel that he _might_ have fought. The vitae had worked. This was not the same Knox, not quite the filthy Nosferatu ghoul he used to be.

“There we go,” Anna said, putting the third tube of blood away. “That should be enough. I can always get more.”

Vandal let go and Knox sucked in a deep breath. “You’re crazy,” he panted. “You can’t do this! Whatever Therese told you, my master will make you pay for this!”

“Therese?” Anna laughed. “You think we’re doing this for _Therese_? And here I thought you weren’t as much of a moron as you seemed at first.”

Knox looked from Anna to Vandal in utter bewilderment and Vandal finally understood why he hadn’t been quite as scared as he should have been. He thought they were acting on Therese’s orders and Therese would never risk incurring the wrath of the Nosferatu by killing one of their ghouls. He grinned.

“Therese hates your precious master’s guts,” he smirked. “She’ll be overjoyed to see him lose something.” He bared his teeth at Knox. “I guess that’ll be my last gift to her, before I finally _kill the Bitch_.”

“You’re tripping!” Knox gasped. “You’re fucking insane!” He was fighting desperately to get free, but he didn’t stand a chance. “Bertram will straight up _ice_ you!” he screamed.

“No,” Anna said airily. “He’ll just replace you and move on. He won’t even remember your name.”

Pain twisted on Knox face, mingling with the fear. Beautiful as it was, Vandal fixed his eyes on Anna’s face instead. She leaned towards Knox, smiling slightly and said in that same, light tone of voice:

“Look at you. We took you and dragged you back here. How many times must you have screamed for help? Your master didn’t come for you. He doesn’t care.”

Knox gulped. “Lying-”

“Can’t you feel it?” Anna interrupted him gleefully. “Can’t you feel that I’ve taken him away from you? He’s no longer inside you, little ghoul. What I pumped into your veins drove him _out_. You’re all alone now…”

Vandal glanced at Knox and saw the terror. _Yes_ , there it was. Freezing him into place as Anna brought her face closer and closer to his. Her eyes glittering with cruelty and pleasure. It was a marvel to behold and she was doing it all with mere words.

“Search your mind, feel your heart. There’s _nothing there_ ,” Anna whispered. “No master, no guidance. You belong with no one now. Which means you belong to us.”

Knox moved. His forehead nearly smacked into Anna’s face, she started back just in time. He screamed at her and thrashed so wildly that the ropes cut into his skin. He howled.

“Filthy fucking-” Anna swore. Her eyes snapped fire. “ _Gag him_ ,” she ordered, having to shout to be heard over Knox’s screaming.

Vandal laughed. “Why?” he cried. “Let him scream.” He wrapped an arm around Anna’s waist and touched her face. “Did he hurt you, princess?”

“No,” she said through gritted teeth. She glared at Knox who was screaming his throat raw. “Someone will _hear_ him,” she hissed contemptuously.

“They never heard the others,” Vandal grinned smugly, but despite this he let go of her and obligingly grabbed the gag. He forced it back into Knox’s struggling mouth, muffling his frantic curses. Anna would learn to love the screams, he would give her time. With _her_ he would be patient.

“Would you look at that,” Anna said with grim gratification. The rope burns on Knox’s arms had disappeared.

“Very promising,” Vandal nodded. “Look what my princess did to you,” he grinned at Knox. “She’s made you so strong not even your own stupidity can hurt you anymore. But she’s like that. Always trying to prevent people from hurting themselves… Isn’t that funny? How opposites attract…” He walked over to the cabinet in the corner and took out a knife.

Everything went silent. For a moment there was nothing but the cool glint of steel. Knox’s muffled screaming. The sound of Anna snapping off her gloves. Their footsteps on the tile floor. Even his own heartbeat and breathing. Everything faded. Everything was still. And then the cold steel touched warm, soft skin and everything came flooding back.

Knox let out a strangled cry, trying to lean away from the knife, and Vandal grinned. He grabbed Knox’s shirt and cut it to pieces, ripping the shreds of fabric off him to expose his chest. Anna let out an excited giggle and walked over to the counter where her recorder stood, apparently still rolling.

“Leave it on,” Vandal said, still grinning. “I’ve never had a souvenir before.”

Anna bit her lip amusedly and leaned against the counter, waiting for him to begin.

“Now,” Vandal said smoothing back his hair with his free hand. “Just so we’re clear. Anna here wants to know how strong her formula has made you.” He smiled. “And I just _really_ want to hurt you.”

Knox screamed when the knife pierced his flesh. Vandal retracted the blade and watched how the blood welled up and tasted the air, just before the soft tissue fused together again and the broken skin restored itself.

“So far so good,” he winked at Anna and he stuck the knife in again.

No injury he caused lasted. They all healed almost instantly. Vandal cut until his hands were stained with red. Until Knox’s tirelessly regenerating skin was gleaming wet from blood and sweat. Enthralled Vandal inhaled the smell of pain that was now thick around him. Torturing someone that healed instantly was…something else. It was new. It was fascinating. It was _gorgeous_. Knox didn’t pass out. He didn’t weaken. He just _suffered_. Endlessly. Vandal thought of the weak human bodies he had brought to destruction and laughed out loud. This was so much better. He could cut so _deeply._ If he drew the knife through his flesh slow enough, it would actually close up just behind the steel, hardly giving the blood time to stream from the wound. It was beautiful, the blood trying to escape, being enclosed by flesh and skin again. The knife slicing and the body mending. It was life chasing death in an endless dance.

Something moved beside him and Vandal found Anna standing right next to him. He looked at her and a smile broke the serenity on his face. She was _blushing_. Her eyes were _gleaming_. He cleared his throat and grinned.

“You want to have a go, princess?” he offered. He only just managed to swallow the ‘please say yes’ that filled his mind.

“I like watching you work,” she muttered, licking her bottom lip.

“Then _watch_ , princess,” he said hotly and he dragged the knife across Knox’s sternum.

“He should have succumbed to internal haemorrhage ages ago,” Anna said when the screams finally changed to broken sobs.

“Isn’t that _fascinating_ ,” Vandal smirked indifferently. He changed the knife from one hand to the other and flexed his fingers. How much time had passed? He had been completely lost in the sensations of it all.

Anna seemed no less enamoured by the sight. Her eyes were constantly moving, as if she could not decide whether watching him or the damage he was doing would give her more pleasure.

“Now what, oh _what_ , shall I do next?” Vandal mused out loud, giving her a crooked smile.

“Well…” Anna said, coming to stand a little closer. “It might be useful to know exactly _how_ invincible this stuff has made you.”

“Do you have any request?” he coaxed. She might not be ready to wield a knife herself, but he could see the excitement in her eyes.

“Yes,” she answered, with an unexpected absence of hesitation. “His fingers.”

“What about them?” Vandal asked.

“Chop one off,” Anna said. “I want to know if it’ll grow back.”

Vandal blinked and started laughing. “How could I say no to such a request?” he chuckled. He looked round and gestured to the cabinet in the corner. “Fetch me something a little heavier, will you, princess?”

Anna went to the cabinet with bouncing steps and returned with a meat cleaver. “How’s this?” she purred.

“Perfect,” Vandal grinned taking it off her and handing her the knife.

She took it willingly and Vandal smiled. All that careful wearing of gloves and now her pretty little hands were covered in blood. He turned back to Knox, who was aware enough of what was about to happen to ball his hands into fists and struggle hard enough to nearly twist his wrists.

Vandal laughed and slammed the handle of the cleaver into the back of Knox hand with enough force to break it. It _didn’t_ break, but Knox did scream and opened his hand. Vandal brought down the cleaver, embedding the blade into the arm rest of the chair and severing the tops off Knox’s fingers. Anna let out a laughing cry when the blood splattered on her white lab coat and Vandal snickered. Anna leaned forward eagerly, ignoring Knox’s agony completely.

“Oh…” she said. “ _Well_.”

The fingers didn’t grow back. But the bleeding stopped very rapidly and the skin seemed to do its best to close over the torn tissue and splintered bone. Knox’s scream trailed off into exhausted panting as the wounds closed and the pain lessened.

“What do you make of that, princess?” Vandal asked.

“I think it might have something to do with the fact that you damaged bone this time,” Anna said excitedly.

“Only one way to find out,” Vandal grinned and he plucked the knife from Anna’s hand again.

He had to cut away substantial pieces of flesh to expose the bones of Knox’s arm long enough to do visible damage. Even after he had managed to split off some chip and splinters he had to keep cutting the rapidly growing flesh away.

“That was a lot harder than I remember damaging bone is,” Vandal observed. “Although I must say it’s an art that I’ve never really bothered to perfect.”

“No,” Anna smiled teasingly. “Bones don’t bleed…” She let out a gasp. “That must be it. Bones don’t bleed. The vitae must affect them in a lesser degree, or differently at least. They _are_ fed by blood of course, but they are not drenched in fluids like the soft tissue.” She snapped her fingers. “Fluids. Vandal, I have to take some lymph for analysis, perhaps there is something in the tissue fluid that I cannot find in the blood.”

“Get one of your vials and tell me where to cut,” Vandal grinned.

“It’s not that easy,” Anna smiled.

“I’m sure it _can_ be,” he urged her. “Don’t forget we’ve got as many tries as we need.”

“No,” she laughed. “I can’t risk a contaminated sample, this needs to be done with a catheter.”

“Fine,” Vandal grunted. He rolled his eyes when Anna walked to the sink. “Just put your gloves on,” he said.

She made an amused sound, but ignored him, scrubbing her hands clean before putting on her gloves again.

“Women,” Vandal grimaced at Knox, who stared at him with vapid eyes. His body might be holding up, but his mind was definitely cracking.

“Now, now,” Anna cooed. “This’ll only take a moment.”

Vandal watched as she collected the milky fluid and sealed the tube.

“You done?” he said impatiently.

“Yes, Mr. No Virtue,” she laughed and suddenly she pressed a quick kiss on his lips. Vandal leaned into her to lengthen it and when he pulled away he held the knife above Knox chest.

“Pick a spot,” he prompted.

“Internal organs,” Anna replied immediately, putting the vial way. “I want to know how much damage you can do to _those_ and still have everything heal instantly.”

As it turned out, quite a lot. Knox passed out by the time Vandal reached his liver. The thick, rusty scent of blood mingled with the rancid smells of tissue that was never meant to reach light and air. The blood was well up to Vandal’s elbows now and his scrubs were completely splattered. Anna had managed to avoid most of the gore, but she was continuously getting just a little too close to keep completely clean.

“It heals almost faster than you can cut,” Anna breathed.

Vandal pulled the knife out and they watched how the gaping hole in Knox’s stomach pulled itself closed again.

“Unbelievable,” Anna said with a sigh. There was a short, sharp silence and then she said: “Try his lungs and heart.”

Of course Vandal complied. Even though he had no doubt they would heal just like the rest of his body did, he wasn’t about to deny Anna _anything_ she asked for now. By now she might as well be holding the knife herself, Vandal thought. They were doing this _together_. Still, her interest was…clinical. It was not cold, not indifferent, far from it. There was fire and fascination in her in abundance. But what she was burning for was _knowledge_. Not the art itself. In the end she didn’t care whether Knox lived or died and that wasn’t right. She should care like he did. You had to _want_ a death. Otherwise it didn’t mean anything.

Knox made a soft noise and Vandal glanced up. Anna was leaning on the counter, scribbling notes. She had washed her hands again, but there were still faint traces of blood on her fingers. Vandal looked at Knox’s face, wet from either tears or sweat. Just as his gaze rested on Knox’s closed eyes, they opened. They stared at each other. Wrapped in the smell of blood. Locked together in terror. Deep in Knox’s eyes, under Vandal’s unwavering gaze, something broke.

Vandal felt his hands move before he really realized it. His left hand cupped Knox’s cheek and he leaned into it involuntarily. It was a gentle, caring movement and the knife moved in exactly the same way. Gently, softly, until the point plunged roughly into the side of Knox’s neck, just under the base of his skull. There was a sharp snap and the light in his hazel eyes froze in a moment of brightness before extinguishing completely.

Every sound, every smell, every sensation was magnified. Vandal held Knox’s head in his hands and felt his life ebb away. He felt his death cling to his fingertips for a moment and tasted how the smell of blood went stale on his tongue. Life was raging through him and he lost himself in the glorious contradiction. He was life. He was death. It was all him.

A sigh sounded behind him and Vandal looked up. Anna was standing with her notebook in her hand. Her pen had fallen on the floor. She was looking at Knox with large, shocked eyes. Vandal let Knox’s head fall back against the headrest and pulled the knife out in one swift movement, letting the blood spill out freely. This was dead blood, though. It was not the same. This wound did not heal and it never would.

Vandal swallowed and tried to breathe through the ecstasy swirling in his mind. He hadn’t meant to kill Knox yet. It had just happened. He glanced at Anna. Her expression was impossible to read. She was not distressed, but she looked rather…

“What did you do that for?” she asked, sounding almost a little detached.

Because it was time. He couldn’t have stopped himself even if he had tried.

“I thought we were going to keep him for a few days? See how long the effects last…”

He _knew_ how long the effects would last.

“Are you even hearing me?”

Yes, but she was saying the wrong things.

“Put your hands behind your back,” Anna ordered, walking towards him.

Vandal was still holding the knife. Silently he put it down and obeyed, clasping his bloody hands behind his back, almost without even thinking about it. Anna raised her own hands to his face and pulled him into a kiss. She kissed him slowly and deeply as if she was trying to taste something new in him. Vandal followed her movements, inhaling her scent, letting it mix with that of the coagulating blood. His hands moved and Anna didn’t protest when he grabbed her by the waist, smudging her still mostly white coat with rusty red. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed her body against his. Vandal felt the daze of ecstasy slowly lifting, making room for more coherent thoughts and feelings. Had Anna seen Knox’s death? He hoped she had. He should have remembered to make her watch. He should have taken her own little hand and wrapped it around the knife. He should have made her feel the jolt as he drove it through his spinal cord.

Anna broke away from the kiss and took in a deep breath. “I’m hungry,” she said, exhaling with a pant. “Let’s go out for dinner.”

“Breakfast,” Vandal said, the corners of his mouth twitching.

“Whatever,” she grinned.

They cleaned the bloodstains off their skin as best they could. Vandal changed his bloody scrubs for his normal clothes while Anna took off her splattered lab coat and fixed the now rather crumpled clothes she had been wearing underneath. As they exited the hospital and walked into the LA morning sun, Vandal grabbed Anna’s hand and tucked it into the crook of his arm. With her walking on his arm like that, they made their way to the diner they had gone to when she had just learned about what he did in the backroom. Walking down the street with her like this – in the bright light of morning, while he could still smell the lingering scent of blood on both their skins – made Vandal want to laugh. His grin barely left his face while they had their meal and although he was more than ready to listen to Anna’s excited musing about what they had found out tonight, he did not feel like talking. Instead he called back the vivid memories of his own pleasure and of Knox’s pain while he ate and studied Anna’s face, searching for the traces of cruelty and delight that he knew must be there. He felt he had lost her near the end, but at the beginning… At the beginning she had been so wonderful. He remembered Anna standing by his side, almost leaning against him, watching his hands as he made his knife dance through Knox’s body.

Later that day, when Vandal watched Anna drag her nails lightly across his chest in exactly the same pattern he had followed with his knife, he realized exactly how attentively she had watched him work.

“It was beautiful wasn’t it,” he groaned, lying back blissfully.

“Beautiful…” Anna breathed.

Vandal gazed up at her. His eyes passed over her flushed skin and the tangled mess he had turned her hair into that she would hate him for later. Suddenly he wasn’t sure if he had ever seen her naked in the proper dusk of night. He couldn’t call forth a single image. She was always lit by muffled daylight or the glaring light of lamps. He’d have to change that soon. Soon.

“When do we kill Therese,” he said suddenly. It was not really a question. He knew the answer he wanted. Their time in Santa Monica was running out, they needed to be gone.

Anna shifted on top of him and gave him a gentle look. “The three weeks aren’t over yet,” she hummed.

“I do not want to wait any longer,” Vandal said firmly. “The longer we wait… No. I’m not letting this place trap me now. Tung will come looking for his little bloodhound. Therese will start making new ghouls, I-”

Anna shook her head at him and stretched her hand towards his face, as if she wanted to put a finger on his lips to shush him. Vandal stopped talking. Anna closed her eyes for a moment and muttered:

“Let’s not talk about that now…”

She looked at him almost dreamily, but Vandal wanted an answer. “Don’t make me wait, Anna,” he said urgently.

“Fine, fine,” she sighed soothingly. “We’ll kill her as soon as she agrees to meet with you. We’ll do whatever you want.”

‘Whatever he wanted.’ Did she mean that? He had never heard that tone of voice before… Her fingers started raking across his chest again.

“Tell me what it was like,” she hummed. “What was it like to kill him?”

Vandal smiled incredulously. He couldn’t _explain_ something like that. There weren’t any words good enough to describe it. Even trying would desecrate the sensation. Such a moment couldn’t be _shared_. Who would even _want_ to-

Anna’s eyes met his and the dreamy expression clung to her like a veil across her eyes. “Please tell me,” she begged, her eyes almost closing again.

Vandal swallowed and started talking.

♦

She had been around death so much it didn’t faze her anymore. Her father had taken her to her first surgery demonstrations with cadavers when she was eleven years old. And she had spent so much time in rooms where death was almost a daily occurrence. She had heard death, smelt it, had been convinced she had seen it. But she only now realized that she hadn’t. She had never _actually_ seen it. Not like tonight.

She had been just in time to see Vandal stroke the hair out of Knox’s face and gently raise the knife. Just in time to see the strange stillness in Knox’s eyes before the life in it shattered. That moment… Anna didn’t understand it. She had never cared about death. Death was something that just _happened_ , to those that no longer were worthy of life. It was an insult, a humiliation, not something to be admired. It came when life was a privilege no longer granted. Even her father had been unable – unworthy – to retain his life. She had felt that sitting by this bed while he faded. His body was weak. It betrayed him and lost him his life. She had thought she had felt death that day. No, she had _known_ and she had felt that it was simply the absence of life. But now that suddenly wasn’t true anymore. She had seen something. Something _real_ and she was certain that Vandal had actually felt it. _She needed to know_.

But his descriptions and explanations sounded empty. They didn’t sound real. Nothing he said made her feel like that moment she had looked into Knox’s eyes. Vandal seemed aware of this. He began talking faster and faster and with increasing frustration, until Anna let go of her aching curiosity and pressed her mouth against his to make him stop talking. Vandal grunted and immediately poured his frustration into the kiss. Anna let him grab her and roll them over so he was on top. He broke off the hungry kiss and tried to say something, but Anna immediately shut his mouth with her own again. She didn’t want to talk. Words weren’t good enough right now. She squirmed underneath Vandal and tried to bite him until he growled at her and pinned her against the mattress. He was too strong now and he hurt her without realizing it, but Anna didn’t care. Tomorrow they would have to plan and prepare, but right now she didn’t want to think. She only wanted to close her eyes and see that shattering of life and light in her memory. She wanted to relive that glimpse of vibrant death and let the hands that caused it hurt her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Goodness gracious, torture scenes are hard to write. It is extremely difficult for me to write something that disgusts me. I keep trying to get away from my own sentences. Sorry Knox…
> 
> I was also reminded while writing this of how much I detest being kissed while I’m trying to talk. Looks passionate on paper, but it’s annoying as all hell in real life.
> 
> My friend BookishAngel told me she sees [Fire and the Flood by Vance Joy](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXse0e-EzkI&ab_channel=wahyusatya%20) as a good Vandal and Anna song and I completely agree!


	20. Sisterly Solidarity

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Content warnings:** None (certainly not compared to the other chapters.)

That evening, during the changing of the day and night shift, they got rid of Knox’s body. Anna insisted that they wash him, on the account of the fact that he was absolutely covered in blood, but had only one open wound. Vandal laughed at her stubbornness and agreed to her request, despite having sent countless bodies in a _much_ more suspicious state to the morgue. That was another thing that didn’t sit right with Anna.

“Are you _sure_ just sending him to the morgue is safe?” she said doubtfully.

“Quite sure,” Vandal smirked. “I have an _agreement_ with one of the workers there.”

“A kindred spirit?” Anna smiled faintly.

“Hardly,” Vandal chuckled. “Our tastes are very different. Quite the opposite actually.” He waited for the look of realization on Anna’s face and when it came, followed by immediate disgust, he laughed.

“So we get him to the morgue,” she said disapprovingly. “And then what?”

Vandal grimaced, reigning in his excitement. Then what. Then _everything_. “Then I will let Therese know that I have found a perfect new pet for her,” he said.

A sneer curled around Anna’s lips and Vandal was pleased to see the amusement in it. She still had some reservations though. “You are sure she won’t tell us to come to her immediately?”

“She won’t if I sent the email early in the morning,” he said.

Anna nodded slowly. He could tell she was wary and he didn’t exactly blame her. It felt rather surreal for him too, to think that this moment would finally come.

“Is there anyone else we need to watch out for at the club?” she asked.

Vandal shook his head.

“Alright,” Anna said, shaking off her gravity. “Let’s get _rid_ of this.”

The surreal feeling only grew after they had dropped off Knox’s body. Vandal felt as if everything around him was muted. All he could think about was the email to Therese. Hundreds of messages he had sent her. Thousands. Grovelling, _pathetic_ messages and this one would be no different. No, this email would be _just_ like all the others, but it would change _everything_. Therese wouldn’t suspect a thing. She would never see this coming.

“Vandal?”

Anna’s voice pulled him back to the present and the noises of the clinic filled his ears again. “Hm?” he hummed.

“I’ll see you at the end of your shift,” she smiled. “I’ve got a lot of things to start finishing up.”

Vandal nodded and she turned away, but he caught her by the arm before she could leave. “Therese might tell us to come in tomorrow night,” he said, lowering his voice.

“Yes…?” Anna said expectantly.

“Take a shot of vitae,” Vandal said. It wasn’t an order. It was a request. But he _needed_ her to grant it.

“I will,” she smiled.

He didn’t believe her. “ _Princess_ ,” he said urgently. If something happened to her. If she got hurt…

“Well,” she said airily. “You did prematurely terminate our test subject, but up until that point the vitae behaved exactly as it did with you and I gave you my word that if that was the case I would take some again. So I will.”

She was lying. “ _Anna_ ,” he growled and there was a desperation in his voice that startled him.

Clearly it had the same effect on Anna, because her smile faded and she turned back to fully face him. “I know what you want me to do,” she said tensely. “And I won’t do it. Not yet. I need…I need more data. You didn’t give me time to experiment on a human subject.”

Why the _fuck_ did she have to make this so difficult? All he wanted was for her to-

“But I _will_ start taking vitae,” she said hastily. “I’ll drink a normal strengthening dose every day, I promise.”

Vandal swallowed the snarl that had fought to escape his throat and exhaled slowly. _That was not good enough_. “Okay,” he said blankly.

“Hey,” Anna said, the smile returning to her face. “This might be your last shift ever.”

The tension in his body lifted. His last shift ever. He grinned at her and she smiled a little wider. She'd better keep her promise…

When Vandal got back to the blood bank he immediately sat down behind the computer. Never, not even at the height of his obsessed enslavement, had he spent this long crafting and polishing the sentences he would send to Therese.

_Miss Voerman, it was not an easy task to find someone that is worthy of being presented to you, but I believe I have found a young woman that you will approve of. Your humble servant begs you for a moment of your time so that he can bring her for you to inspect._

He stared at the screen for a long time before hitting send and when he did, he did not move for half an hour. His heart was burning inside of him and his head was swimming. Therese never wasted any time settling business. She would order him to come in tomorrow night, he was sure of that. One more night, one last shift, and then he’d have his freedom. His freedom and his Anna. They were one and the same now, he could not have one without the other…

How was he _ever_ going to make it through this shift.

♦

Carefully and meticulously Anna swept her lab clean. She removed anything and everything that wasn’t connected to her research for the clinic. The things she had done here, the things she had _finally managed to do_ here. She smiled. And that in a dump like this. Anna checked all the bottles with substances she needed to take home to see if they were properly sealed and then placed them safely in a container before putting them in her bag. Santa Monica had given her more than she could ever have imagined. It was _almost_ enough to make her sentimental. She laughed softly. She was taking away _everything_ of worth this place had had. Not that anyone had _realized_ they had it in the first place. Anna hummed smugly. Or perhaps she wasn’t taking anything away they had _had_ at all. After all, she was taking things away that _she_ had created. Santa Monica had offered her a broken ghoul and an infestation of parasites and she was taking away a _real_ man and a cure for _all the ills of humanity_.

She exhaled and felt herself shaking. She had created a drug that rendered a subject invincible after what should be an overdose. As close to invincible as a human could get. Except…were you still human if you were immortal? _Would_ Vandal be immortal? Had she really turned broken into flawless? Perfection… She stared at her hands. They were trembling. She steadied them. Perfection was something to _strive_ for. Not to be obtained. _Perfection begets perfection_. She shouldn’t think about this now, she should think about it later.

“Selfish girl,” she told herself playfully. “Thinking only of yourself. Spare a thought for those that are about to _die_.”

She pulled herself together and mixed a dose of vitae into a glass of water. Without allowing herself to think about it she put the glass to her lips and drank. The water was cool slipping down her throat but it left behind a warm glow that settled firmly in her stomach. As calmly as she could Anna cleaned the glass and put the vitae away. It was a _medicine_. Something to be used. _Used as she saw fit_. Yes, but not abused. How could she abuse what she had crafted herself? How could she _abuse_ purity taken from the worst of filth? _The shepherd must stand above the flock_.

With a sharp shake of her head Anna banished any thought that didn’t suit her. Briskly she went about her business, all but ignoring the warm, rejuvenating strength that was slowly spreading through her body. She pretended she didn’t notice the slight change in her step, the lessening of the strain on her neck and the rosiness of her reflection’s face. Anna knew that Vandal would notice it though, and he would be pleased. At half past five she prepared to go join him downstairs, this was probably not the best time to keep him waiting. She smiled. He hadn’t texted her once, which meant that he had forbidden himself to do so.

With her heavy bag effortlessly swinging on her shoulder Anna made her way down the corridors. The clicking of her heels sounded like the tolling of a bell to her. The next time she would walk this way she’d be on her way to destroy Therese Voerman.

Someone turned the corner towards her and Anna hastily formed her grimace into a smile. “Hi, Paige,” she said. “You’re here early.”

“Yes,” Paige answered, sounding a little dejected. “I changed shifts with Marge, she had a…thing.”

“What’s the matter?” Anna asked, frowning slightly. Paige looked rattled and that was a rare occurrence. If she had seen or heard something unsettling Anna wanted to know about it. It might be important.

“Nothing,” Paige muttered. “I just… Does everybody know? About me and Malcolm?”

Anna kept a straight face. _Of course_ everyone knew. Stupid girl.

“I know _you_ know,” Paige said, looking at her feet. “Because Vandal knows. He just told me.”

An amused smile fought its way onto Anna’s lips, but she took care to make her eyes kind and soft. She was willing to bet that Paige had run into a bored, frustrated Vandal and that he had decided to give the Santa Monica clinic one last parting gift.

“Yes, Paige,” she said kindly. “I know…and I think most people do.”

Paige sucked in a frustrated breath and shook her head.

Anna glanced around. The corridor was deserted. She put a hand on Paige’s arm. “What did Vandal say?” she said companionably. “Did he have the gall to make fun of you? Do I need to smack him for you?”

A faint smile appeared on Paige’s lips at this show of sisterly solidarity. “No,” she said softly. “He didn’t make fun of me at all… He just said…” She looked up at Anna with her pale green eyes and said: “He told me I shouldn’t let Malcolm keep me as his dirty secret anymore.”

Diversion purred in Anna’s chest. Vandal would learn to love playing with people with words instead of blades as much as she did. She pulled a sympathetic face. “I’m not sure if I agree with his choice of words,” she said. “We didn’t exactly advertise our relationship ourselves.”

“No, but that’s different,” Paige said. She checked herself. “Or…well, are you…?”

“Exclusive?” Anna smiled. “I certainly hope so.”

Paige gave her a sincere look. “If you are I am certain he is too,” she said.

The compliment to herself wasn’t lost on Anna, but it still made her sneer inwardly for Vandal’s sake. She didn’t reply, but leaned against the wall and watched Paige struggle with herself. Several buttons were practically lighting up on her face, begging to be pushed, but Anna was patient. She waited.

“Do you think Malcolm loves me?” Paige burst forth suddenly.

“I think he loves you more than he does his wife,” Anna replied carefully.

“You know Trina?” Paige muttered, averting her eyes.

“I met her at one of the hospital events once,” Anna said. Malcolm’s wife was everything Paige wasn’t. As far as Anna was concerned that meant that she _wasn’t_ stupid and that meant she probably had a pretty good idea of what her husband got up to after hours. Anna took a deep breath. “Listen, Paige, I don’t know a lot about love, but-”

“Do you love Vandal?” Paige interrupted.

Anna glanced at her. “Yes,” she said.

“Why?” Paige demanded to know. She looked as if she was about to cry.

Why? Because Vandal _understood_ her. He knew her. Wanted her. Needed her. _Ached_ for her. She loved him because she couldn’t help but love him. Because he turned the world into a kaleidoscope of destructive creation and chaotic delight. Because he looked at her and saw _everything_ and just _worshipped her_.

She swallowed. “I suppose…” she said slowly. “For the same reason you love Malcolm.” She fixed her eyes on Paige’s. “Because when he puts his hand to your cheek all the old heartache fades for a moment and knowing that he chose you makes it all worth it.”

The quivering look on Paige’s face almost made Anna laugh out loud. Here was a girl that had never chosen _anything_ herself in her life. Girls like Paige just waited around to _be_ chosen, so they could either bolster their self-worth with coy rejections or gratify their insecurities with rapturous acceptance.

“Then why doesn’t he love me like I love him?” Paige grieved.

Anna looked at her and waited until she had her full attention before she said: “Don’t say that, Paige. Of _course_ he loves you. How could he make you feel like that if he _didn’t_?” Such carefully crafted words and yet they sounded like they came pouring straight out of her heart. Straight from her heart into Paige’s.

Paige raised her head. “He couldn’t…” she said.

“It’s hard being the other woman, Paige,” Anna said sympathetically. “Because it’s not about love. If it was, he would be with you and you alone. You are not just competing with Trina, you’re competing with society and it is on _her_ side, not yours.”

“It’s so _unfair_ ,” Paige burst out. “Why won’t she just let us be happy?”

“Why won’t she let herself be happy,” Anna sighed.

“What?” Paige asked.

“Do you think Trina is happy?” Anna smiled sadly. “Holding on to Malcolm with all her might, knowing that he wants to be with someone else? Because she must know. I don’t think she knows it’s you, but I’m sure she knows Malcolm is no longer hers.”

“Then why doesn’t she let him go?” Paige agonized.

“How can she?” Anna said emphatically. “Without knowing who she’ll release him to. Without understanding that her doing so would make _everyone_ happier. How is she to know all this on her own?”

Glimmers of hope and opportunity began to spark in Paige’s eyes and Anna watched them grow. Revenge and envy were all very well, but _nothing_ could compare to the motivation of the conviction that one was _doing_ _the right thing_.

“I had never thought of it that way,” Paige said, biting her lip.

“Neither had I,” Anna sighed. “These are things you have to learn first-hand.”

Realization made Paige sober a little and she asked cautiously: “Were you…?”

“I was where Trina is now,” Anna said with a wistful smile. “I was dying inside, but I couldn’t let go. You know…I still regret never thanking the other girl for coming to speak to me. I was so hurt then, but…” She smiled. “I never would have found Vandal if she hadn’t made me understand the situation. If she hadn’t convinced me to finally let go.”

Paige’s face shone and Anna knew what was coming. “Oh, Anna,” she gushed and Paige wrapped her arms around her shoulders. Anna hugged her back and smiled into Paige’s red hair. It was a pity Vandal wouldn’t be around to see the fallout of this, but _she_ would have a front row seat.

Anna left Paige looking lovelier than ever. The hope of happiness was a marvellous thing. Anna herself felt her cheeks glow and her eyes shine. It wouldn’t even have occurred to her to have this bit of fun without Vandal. She sighed. All his chaotic distractions were worth it for these bursts of brilliance.

When she finally arrived at the blood bank Anna found Vandal pacing back and forth impatiently.

“Where were you?” he growled.

“Having a chat with Paige,” Anna smirked. “Your words cause quite the stir in her pretty little head.”

His face changed instantly and she saw the cruel pleasure chase his frustration away. “What did you tell her?” he asked, baring his teeth in a grin.

“Oh, nothing of consequence,” she hummed nonchalantly. “Just a little sisterly advice. I’m sure her and Malcolm’s relationship will benefit _greatly_ by it.”

Vandal chuckled delightedly. “Smug bastard,” he growled. “Always wasting gallons of precious sanguine spirits on worthless bags of bones.”

“Speaking of sanguine spirits,” Anna with a meaningful smile. “The only thing left of my personal work at my lab is a pristine bag of premium quality blood sitting in my cooler.” She smiled a little wider. “Completely untampered with and ready for consumption.”

“Wonderful,” Vandal said with a wolfish smile. “Because the soon to be _late_ Therese Voerman saw fit to reply to my email.”

Anna felt the excitement that had been bubbling low in her stomach swirl up through her chest. “And?” she asked expectantly.

He grinned. “Tomorrow night, at one o’clock sharp, we have an audience with the Queen.”

Anna smiled. “Oh dearie me,” she said, clasping a hand to her chest. “What ever will I wear?”

♦

Vandal felt like his blood was simmering in his veins. He was so incapable of keeping still that Anna insisted she’d be the one driving tonight. They would be going to her place, she had a lot of stuff to put away. Vandal lounged in the passenger seat of his car and stared at the light of dawn starting to bleach the sky. This was Therese’s last sunrise…

“I hope you feel privileged,” he chuckled, turning towards Anna. “You would be the Bitch’s first female ghoul. She said so in her reply.”

“I can hardly contain my excitement,” Anna sneered, keeping her eyes on the road. She made a disgusted noise. “Why is it,” she said resentfully. “That I seem to continually end up playing a ghoul for someone’s benefit lately.”

“Only a ghoul-to-be this time,” Vandal chuckled. “And the first time was entirely your own idea.”

She hummed and Vandal teased her until they arrived at her apartment. Once inside Anna sat down and loosened her ponytail a little. Vandal sat down as well and waited for the questions he saw brewing in Anna’s mind.

“You said there was no one we needed to watch out for at the club,” she said. “But aren’t there other ghouls?”

“The bartender,” Vandal replied. “He is Therese’s, used to be Jeanette’s actually. But he isn’t a threat. I have no idea if Therese has already started recruiting new ghouls though.”

“Well,” Anna smiled. “If Mr. Harrington is any indication even three ghouls wouldn’t stand a chance against you now.”

He grinned.

“But they might alarm Therese,” Anna considered. “I’ll have to bring quite a lot of equipment, remember. That might attract attention.”

“I doubt anyone will notice,” Vandal replied. “You are too good at looking like you belong.”

“As long as we’re not seen together,” Anna said decisively.

“Hm,” he hummed. They would have to get the timing just right…

“Do you still want to stick to the original plan?” Anna asked after a while. “We thought of it before you…changed.”

He didn’t change. He had always been like this. He was always _meant_ to be like this. “Do you?” he asked. Honestly, Vandal didn’t care that much. What mattered was that they got Therese helpless and incapacitated. _How_ they got here there was all the same to him.

“Yes,” Anna said. “You might be strong enough to overpower her when she’s distracted, but better safe than sorry.”

“Fine with me,” he said. He _did_ prefer the idea of Anna being the one to bring Therese down. It was…fitting.

 “So we’ll do it like we planned from the start,” Anna said. “You poison her, I stake her, we drain her and then you get to have your fun.”

The corners of Vandal’s mouth twitched and he swallowed compulsively. _Fun_.

“And you’re _sure_ ,” Anna said, suddenly making eye contact and holding his gaze. “Really sure?”

Vandal looked into her sober eyes. What was she asking him? Did she doubt that he wanted Therese dead? Was she afraid he still hadn’t got rid of the ghoul in him? “Princess,” he said, lowering his voice. “The only reservation _I_ have is that the Bitch won’t be able to feel what I’m going to _do_ to her.”

A spark lit up in Anna’s eyes. “Is that what you’d like?” she cooed. “Would you want her to scream for you? Would you want her to _beg_?”

He swallowed again, staring at the teasing smile dancing on Anna’s face.

“I think you do,” she purred. “I think you want to hear those cold lips pant your name, _begging_ for mercy. You want to feel her shiver when you touch her… You want her to _writhe_ in agony trying to get away from you until she goes limp. You want her to scream for you until her throat starts _burning_. You want to see her eyes fixed on you in terror as you turn those screams into desperate whimpers…”

Vandal felt the blood rush through his body. His heart beat so loudly he could hear it thumping in his ears. He wanted Anna to keep going. To _never_ stop talking. But she' _d better_ shut up soon, or he’d-

“Isn’t that what you want, Vandal?” Anna coaxed, sneaking a hand up his knee. “Come on…you can tell me.”

“ _Don’t_ be a tease, princess,” Vandal growled and he caught her hand a little more forcefully than he had meant to.

She winced, but the coy look on her face merely wavered, it came back in an instant. Anna batted her eyes at him. “How am I supposed to know what you secretly want, if I don’t ask?” she whispered teasingly.

Vandal rubbed the palm of her hand with his thumb and tapped her fingers with his own. “Anna…” he said darkly. “There is _no one_ that knows what I want, _except_ you.”

Anna’s eyes glittered a little harder and she grabbed his hand, getting to her feet and pulling him with her. “I have a surprise for you,” she said.

He followed her to her bedroom. His mind was strangely blank, but that changed when Anna pushed him towards the bed and told him to sit, without meaning to join him. She looked excited, but not in the usual bedroom kind of way. He gave her a curious look.

“Princess,” he began. “What-”

“I said _sit_ ,” she laughed, going to her closet.

Vandal watched how she kneeled and pulled some boxes out from under the lowest shelf, that housed her shoes. They weren’t shoe boxes though. Anna lifted out some journals and folders and Vandal saw that they were all labelled things like “novel” or “screen play”. He raised an eyebrow. He had never seen Anna write anything other than her research notes.

“These are some…souvenirs,” Anna said with a bright smile. “From my time with the hunters.”

She got to her feet with the box in her arms and Vandal heard a metallic clanging. What on earth could she have hidden there? He saw at least three more boxes there. Anna sat down beside him and put the box on his lap.

“I thought you might like this,” she grinned.

Vandal stared at the contents of the box. They were iron shackles. Almost like heavy bracelets with keys. They came in sets of two, connected by a short, heavy chain. Hammered deep into the metal of each piece was a symbol he had never seen before. Like a cross that bent downward and branched out twice instead of once. Vandal lifted one of the shackles out of the box. They were extremely heavy. A suspicion began to dawn on him.

“Are these what the hunters used to chain their victims?” he asked.

“Exactly,” Anna replied excitedly.

Vandal weighed the chains in his hand. “ _This_ is enough to restrain a vampire?” he asked. That was unbelievable.

“A _healthy_ vampire, no,” Anna said meaningfully. “But a _hurt_ vampire...” She grinned. “A drained parasite… It’s good enough to hold _them_.”

Before he realized what he was doing Vandal found himself measuring Therese’s wrists in his mind. These had clearly been used for someone of a slightly larger build, but they were not too big. If they could really restrain her…they wouldn’t have to keep her paralysed. They could take the stake out once they had drained enough of her blood to weaken her. They could keep her _awake_ throughout all the delicious and terrible things he had planned for her. Except…

“Binding her hands and feet will constrict her movement,” he mused. “But it won’t keep her in place.”

“True,” Anna admitted. “The hunters had iron bars and stone slabs with rings embedded into them to chain their subjects to.”

“Victims,” Vandal corrected her smugly.

“ _Parasites_ ,” she retorted.

There was a short silence.

“Is there anything heavy enough in the room to chain her to?” Anna asked thoughtfully.

“Her desk…” Vandal said hesitantly. Would that be heavy enough to hold Therese? Probably not. “There are two statues,” he remembered. “Ugly things. They reach almost to the ceiling. I think she had those bolted to the floor. They’re made out of hardwood.”

“That sounds usable,” Anna said, brightening up.

“They’re too far apart,” Vandal shook his head. “There’s a long couch in between them.”

“That’s perfect,” she smirked. “A nice soft place for the Queen to enter her eternal sleep.”

He chuckled, but shook his head again. “These chains are too short,” he said. “They won’t reach, not even if we stretch her arms above her head.

“No matter,” Anna said, getting to her feet. “I’ve got another set with longer chains.”

Vandal threw his head back and laughed. Of course she did. Anna chuckled and pulled out one of the other boxes, shaking it until she heard the metallic clanging. Vandal put the box with shackles down and kneeled beside her, glancing over the notebooks she had put on the floor.

“Nosy,” Anna hummed, when he picked one up to open it.

“May I?” he asked mockingly.

She gave an equally mocking inclination of the head.

Vandal opened the journal that was labelled “Novella” and leafed through the pages. Notes. Endless notes on _everything_ connected to vampires. They were all in Anna’s uncannily neat handwriting. He couldn’t read it all, she used a specific sort of shorthand, but there were illustrations too. Vandal whistled between his teeth. Either Anna must have spent a lot more time with the hunters than he had initially thought, or she had kept herself _really_ busy. He stopped on a page that showed the same strange cross that he had seen on all the shackles.

“What is this?” he asked.

“Some sort of occult symbol,” Anna frowned. “It’s the reason I took the shackles actually.” She held out a new pair to him, this time with a much longer chain connecting the bracelets. It clearly cost her some effort to lift it. “These aren’t hard to make, but the symbol _matters_ somehow.”

“Does it hurt them?” Vandal asked eagerly, taking one of the bracelets and tracing the cross in the metal with his nail.

“I’m not sure,” Anna pondered. “It weakens them I think. And the most effective torture I’ve seen them perform on bloodsuckers was when they burned them with brands of this symbol.”

Vandal looked at her. She had told him the hunters burned the vampires to torture them, but she had never mentioned specific implements. “They branded this symbol into their skin?” he asked hungrily. “And it hurt them?”

“Oh yes,” Anna smiled. “I had never heard such screaming. For hours after they’d sob and whimper about the fire burning in their wounds.”

A jolt of excitement went up Vandal’s spine. “Did you take one of _those_?” he asked eagerly.

“No,” Anna said regretfully. “They would never have let me have one. Tools of the holy trade as far as they were concerned. Fanatics.” She shook her head.

That was a pity, Vandal thought, then again…he would rather do this his way. It wouldn’t be as special if he used someone _else’s_ methods.

“I did consider having one made,” Anna told him. “But...I don’t think that would work.” She sounded rather disgruntled.

It didn’t surprise Vandal though. These had been made by the hunters and for all their pious prattle, they were definitely occult. “The idea of magic offends you?” he chuckled. How long was she going to stay hung up on her science, while playing with forces that were the stuff of nightmares?

“Not at all,” Anna said defensively. “The occult is just a science. Alchemy and science were always one and the same. I am offended by the suggestion that faith has something to do with it.”

Ah, and she had probably found out that it did.

“But,” she said, changing the subject. “Will this work, do you think these chains are long enough?”

Vandal held them out to their full length and grinned. “Yes,” he said. “Yes, these will reach easily.” With these he could spread Therese out across the couch. Utterly helpless. At his mercy.

“Well then,” Anna smiled darkly. “Then I think I have just fulfilled one of your wishes.”

“And after tonight,” Vandal promised her, grinning manically. “I will fulfil _all_ of yours.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And if you look to your right, you’ll see Anna’s messed up opinion on women. Sorry Paige…but at least you’ll live.
> 
> (Did I search through endless LP’s just to be sure about those statues? Yes, yes I did.)
> 
> As for the symbol on the shackles, that would be the lovely scribble we see branded into Ash River’s face by the hunters.
> 
> It’s time for the end game guys... See you again soon!
> 
> [Edit: There finale is violent and at the moment there isn't a censored version, if you would like me to make one or you have a question and you don't want to leave a public AO3 comment, you can reach out to me on [FF](https://www.fanfiction.net/u/8912782/Moonfreckle) or on [Tumblr](https://mysunfreckle.tumblr.com/).]


	21. Life and Death

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Content warnings:** Extremely graphic violence, explicit torture, self-inflicted harm, gun violence, and a highly unhygienic sex scene.

Time had slowed down until the blaring music in the Asylum was nothing more than a distant hum. Vandal glanced through the club and saw Anna sitting at the bar. A small suitcase on wheels stood beside her bar stool, almost out of sight, her handbag resting on top of it. She was dressed in her business casual and looked like she had just come back from a trip. Vandal glanced at the bartender. He had a young goth kid with him that had just finished serving Anna a drink. He couldn’t be older than twenty and Vandal scoffed. Ghoul or not, he wouldn’t make a difference.

Vandal moved to the elevator but just before he pressed the button he saw it was already lit. Quickly he stepped away and retreated into a corner. It was too loud to hear if the elevator was going up or just coming down, but it was nothing like Therese to double book an appointment and he was on time, not early. Sure enough, the elevator opened and to his surprise and slight dismay Mercurio stepped out. Mercurio _would_ make a difference. If he stuck around… Vandal watched him quietly, his mind filled with the calm that always took hold of him when chaos was just a heartbeat away. Mercurio glanced around. His eyes passed over the bar, but didn’t linger. Vandal exhaled slowly. There was no reason Mercurio should even know who Anna was, much less what she looked like, but you never knew. Mercurio raised his head and apparently he had made eye contact with the bartender, because the bald, tattooed head bobbed in a nod of recognition. Mercurio returned it and then moved swiftly towards the door and out of the club. Vandal straightened his shoulders and his face twitched into something between a smile and a grimace. No harm done.

The elevator was still waiting. He pressed the button. The doors opened. Vandal stepped inside and turned around, looking out one last time as the doors closed. He could not see Anna from this angle and his eyes stared without an object to focus on. The dancefloor was full of sweaty faces and writhing bodies. _Full of life_. The sliding doors obscured it all from view and the elevator moved up. Separating him from the noise. Removing him from the life. Leading him away from humanity.

As soon as he stepped out into the hallway he heard Therese’s scathing voice. A hiss caught in his throat. Was there someone with her? No, there was no voice answering her. She must be on the phone. His feet hardly made a sound and he held still in front of the closed door. Waiting. He ran his thumb over the leather of the heavy carrier bag on his shoulder. _Patience is a virtue_.

It went quiet behind the door. Vandal raised his hand to knock.

“Enter,” Therese’s cold voice snapped. “I can hear you _breathing_.”

Vandal’s smile trembled with anticipation and he went inside, carefully closing the door without letting it go on the latch.

“Good evening, Miss Voerman,” he murmured.

Therese looked him up and down and crossed her arms. “Where is the girl?” she said demandingly. “You said you’d bring her with you.”

“She is waiting downstairs, ma’am,” Vandal simpered. “I shall summon her directly if you wish, but – if you will allow me – I have a gift for you.” He slipped his hand in his bag. “Something to beg your forgiveness for the weakness and incompetence in me that you so graciously put up with.”

“And what might that be?” Therese said, unmoved.

“Something rare and delectable,” Vandal grinned and he held the bag of blood out to her.

Therese inhaled and he saw her eyes darken.

“Intoxicating isn’t it?” Vandal smiled invitingly. “I always save the best for you, ma’am.”

She was struggling to keep her cool exterior intact. Vandal saw her mouth open ever so slightly before she pressed her lips together into a thin line. She raised her chin and _almost_ managed to look unconcerned.

“Would you allow me to pour you a glass, Miss Voerman?” he grovelled.

Her lips parted again and he could almost feel the hunger in her. “Very well,” she snapped abruptly.

Vandal hid his triumph by hurrying to the cupboard. He carefully selected the largest wine glass she owned and opened the blood pack. The eager sound Therese failed to repress nearly made him squirm with impatience. Slowly, without spilling a drop, Vandal poured the crimson liquid into the glass. It wouldn’t be able to hold the entire contents of the bag, but more than enough.

“Ma’am…” he whispered, turning around and holding the glass out to her.

She actually came towards him to take it. It didn’t even occur to her to make him come to her. Her cold eyes were shining feverously and her hand was not quite steady when she plucked the glass from his fingers. Eagerly she put the glass to her dark lips and drank. Vandal stood and watched. Nothing, not her perfect hair, her manicured nails, her expensive suit or the glass she was drinking from, could preserve Therese from looking like the monster she was in this moment. Her movements were frantic, the sounds she made feral. The blood was too strong, the taste was too good. She gulped it down greedily, oblivious of anything but her own desire. She had swallowed nearly all of it before something like suspicion began to dawn on her face.

Vandal stepped back, but kept his eyes fixed firmly on her. The corners of his mouth were trembling. “What’s the matter, Miss Voerman?” he simpered.

She swallowed and pressed a hand to her middle. There was nothing Vandal could do to stop the grin from spreading across his face now, but her eyes, widened in distress, were not looking at him.

“A chair,” she choked. “Get-” Her knees trembled and nearly gave out.

Silently Vandal grabbed the chair that stood beside her desk and placed it behind her, just in time for her to sit down. She slumped forward, nearly doubling over and shuddered. Vandal didn’t touch her, he just stared at her, his heart contracting like it was going to burst. _She was in pain_. The wine glass slipped through Therese’s fingers and fell to the floor. The remaining blood sloshed out and the sanguine scent on the air grew even thicker. _She was in agony_. With a sudden cry of weakness Therese retched and threw up, spraying rusted crimson all over the fine carpet.

Vandal heard the door open, but Therese did not. When she sat upright again, gasping for air, Anna was standing in the doorway, looking at her. She stood with her hands behind her back and a bright smile on her face. Only her eyes, flickering wildly with an impenetrable darkness, proved that she was anything other than a polite, young professional.

“Miss Voerman,” she smiled. “The pleasure is all mine.” In one fluid movement she took the crossbow from behind her back and fired. Therese was sitting right in front of her and she was still dazed. The stake hit her right in the middle of her heart.

Therese’s eyes were still wide with shock when her head fell backwards and she went limp. Her legs gave way to the paralysis and she was draped across the chair. Slowly she slid down until she was resting on the floor, her head leaning awkwardly against the seat.

Vandal exhaled heavily and tore his gaze away from Therese’s helpless form to look at Anna. Her smile was all honey-coated cruelty. The look in his eyes should have burned her skin right now.

“Are you going to let Her Majesty lie on the floor like that?” Anna teased. She put the crossbow down on the floor and turned around. “I’ll go get our toys.”

With a growl of satisfaction Vandal turned back to Therese. Her eyes were not quite closed, but she was completely unconscious. The wooden crossbow bolt stuck grotesquely out of her chest and thick, dark coloured blood trickled down her ivory skin. Slowly, like he was getting down to pray, Vandal dropped to one knee beside her. She was so…small. Lying there like that, she looked thin and frail. With a thousand images of a thousand fantasies fluttering through his mind he leaned forward and took Therese in his arms. He got to his feet, carrying her like a groom carrying a bride to their marriage bed. Her shoes slipped from her feet and fell to the floor with two soft thumps. For a moment Vandal stood completely silent, feeling Therese’s weight in his arms. He inhaled sharply and took in her scent. It didn’t thrill him like it used to. Not even now, with her skin pressed against his. But there was one note in the perfume of her existence that made his raging heart beat even faster. The blood trickling down to her breasts didn’t smell like the liquid he had craved with his whole being. This wasn’t essence freely given, this was liquid pain, pouring directly from her shattered heart.

Anna appeared in the doorway again, dragging her suitcase behind her. She closed the door behind her and glanced up at him with amused eyes. He grinned.

“What a lovely picture,” she purred and she leaned down, opening the suitcase and pulling out a pair of shackles. “Look what I brought for the bride…”

“Those will look simply _divine_ on her,” Vandal said, his voice thick with desire. He walked to the couch and gently, _oh so gently_ , laid Therese down.

Anna walked to his side and held out a pair of shackles to him. He took them, brushing deliberately past her fingers as he pulled the chain from her hand. She smiled and went to fetch the other pair. They were too heavy for her to carry more than one at the time. Vandal closed his fingers around one of Therese’s ankles and felt the fabric of her panty hose. How many times had he thought of kissing those feet? Dreamt of spreading those legs? With a smirk he clicked the iron bracelet shut and wrapped the heavy chain around the tall statue standing at the end of the couch. He fastened the other shackle around her right ankle and let the chain rest on the couch’s curled arm rest with a heavy clang.

Therese’s body moved and Vandal looked up. Anna had pulled Therese’s arms up above her head, one wrist caught in the shackle and the other still hanging loose. She had pulled the chain taut and was struggling to make it reach. Vandal grinned and grabbed Therese’s hips, moving her towards the other end of the couch.

“Thank you,” Anna huffed and she clicked the bracelet around Therese’s free wrist. She dropped her hand with a carelessness of manner Vandal couldn’t equal, but when they stepped back and looked at Therese, limp and stretched out helplessly, he felt like they drank in the sight with almost equal excitement. If these shackles were really enough to restrain her, and these statues would hold, Therese would barely be able to move. There was a silence that seemed almost electric to Vandal. His hands were still, but it _felt_ like they were twitching.

“Can I start?” Anna asked huskily. “Or do you want to admire her a little longer?”

“Go ahead, princess,” he breathed. “But let me see _everything_ you’re doing.”

_Therese strapped to a table. Anna smilingly raising a needle. Therese with wrists all slit and bleeding. Anna dancing barefoot, leaving crimson footprints on a pristine floor._

His fantasies faded and he stared at reality. Anna, dragging a suitcase full of equipment towards an unconscious, chained down Therese. He let out a growling sigh and Anna looked up at him, eyes sparkling with amusement. Suddenly she walked to the desk and dragged Therese’s fine leather chair towards the couch.

“Perhaps Sir would like to take a seat to better enjoy the show?” she said invitingly, raising a playful eyebrow.

Vandal laughed. The laughter grabbed hold of the pent-up excitement and tension deep inside of him and filled his chest with boisterous pleasure. He sat down and leaned back, resting his right foot on his left knee. He turned the chair so he would be able to see both Therese _and_ Anna.

“Ready?” Anna whispered.

“Give me a show, princess,” he grinned.

The amount of pleasure with which Anna inserted needles into Therese’s arms and legs and hooked her up to the pump she had brought was nothing short of perverse. There was nothing clinical about the way she deftly ripped holes in her panty hose or the vicious movement with which she pushed the thick, long needles deeply into her flesh. She literally laughed with glee when the pump began sucking the blood from Therese’s body and the tubes leading to the receptacle filled with redness. Vandal watched every movement she made and craned his neck to catch every single expression on her face. All of this… Anna standing over a helpless Therese, pulling on her arms, pushing aside her clothes, breaking her skin. He wanted every single one of these images to be etched into his brain forever.

Time passed quickly at first. Too quickly. But then the sounds of the pump began to form a steady rhythm and everything slowed down again, until it seemed to Vandal that time had nearly slowed to a crawl.

“Isn’t it fascinating how they don’t die, even when you drain them completely?” Anna broke the tense silence that had filled the room for a long time now. “The hunters told me that if you keep them like this long enough they go dormant, almost like they’ve really died, but merely sleeping…is that true?”

“Don’t know,” Vandal said. “Don’t care.” Drained vampires couldn’t heal themselves and were incapable of amplifying their strength or using their mind-controlling magic, that was all he cared about. A drained Therese would be a Therese he could _hurt_. “Can we unstake her now?” he asked eagerly.

“Not yet,” Anna said. “We need to drain her _beyond_ the point of weakness. If we wake her up too early, she might frenzy.” She grimaced. “The hunters used to say that was when the parasites revealed their true selves. I’ve seen bloodsuckers almost break free from chains like these when frenzying.”

“Almost is good enough for me,” Vandal growled. He was getting impatient. Anna had been calmly standing by, just watching the blood drain out of Therese for far too long.

“It’s not worth the risk,” Anna said firmly.

“I want her to realize what we’re doing to her,” Vandal said darkly. “I want her to _know_ we’re draining her.”

Anna glanced at him. There was a conflicted hesitation in her air.

He grinned. “See, you _like_ the sound of that,” he smirked. “Admit it.”

She bit her lip and glanced at the container with blood, checking how much it was. A human would have bled out long ago, but there was a remarkable amount of blood in a well-fed vampire. Even one who had just thrown up her last meal.

“Fine,” Anna decided. “Unstake her. But not before I have reloaded the crossbow.”

Vandal sprang to his feet and watched with a grin how Anna put a new bolt on the crossbow and positioned herself at a safe distance from the couch.

“Ready, princess?” he asked.

She looked at him with flushed cheeks and a grim smile. “Ready when you are.”

He chuckled, letting the sounds roll off his lips and devolve into a proper laugh as he leaned over Therese and gripped the stake stuck in her heart. His hand closed around the rough wood and he took a deep breath. With one firm movement, he pulled the bolt out and stepped back. Blood oozed slowly from the round wound in Therese’s chest and a jolt went through her body. Her arms and legs tensed, but the chains kept them firmly in place.

Therese let out a bewildered cry that sounded _very_ human. She moved her head frantically, only to find it was rather restricted by her arms being pinned high above her head. She cried out. “What…?” she gasped.

Vandal took in the sight of her with gleeful fascination.   _Look at her_. She was completely lost, disoriented, stunned.

With a sudden focus Therese looked up and saw him. “You!” she cried. “Release me this _instant_!”

Vandal grinned, but didn’t move an inch. She was angry. She was furious. _She was completely at his mercy._

“I _order_ you!” Therese screamed. She tried to fight her bonds, but every time she pulled on the chains and the bracelets dug into her flesh she hissed and thrashed wildly. Those bonds were _hurting_ her.

“You can order all you want, filthy dead bitch,” Vandal laughed. “I don’t answer to you anymore.” Her astonishment was even better than her anger. The shock in her grey eyes was breathtakingly beautiful.

“ _Traitor_ ,” Therese hissed, her eyes snapping cold fire at him. “Ungrateful _waste_ of blood!”

“You’re breaking my heart, Therese,” Vandal simpered. “ _You’re breaking my heart_.”

Vandal could tell that with every word he spoke the realization that he was actually capable of disobeying her sank in more deeply, but still disbelief reigned on Therese’s face. She threw her head wildly from side to side and suddenly she spotted Anna. Her eyes widened and she bared her teeth with a ferocious snarl.

“This _kine_ helped you?” she spat.

“Do you like her?” Vandal asked, grinning manically. “I’m afraid she declined your offer to become your slave, but she still _really_ wanted to meet you.”

“Impudent _worm_!” Therese shrieked. “ _I will have her kill you!_ ”

She fixed her eyes on Anna and for an instant Vandal felt the sickening pull of her Dementation radiate around her. But it evaporated immediately. She had no blood to spare. She couldn’t defend herself. Vandal _laughed_. He was never going to _stop_ laughing.

Curses and frantic screams demanding explanations spewed from Therese’s mouth and Anna stepped forward, still pointing the crossbow at her chest. “If you’re wondering why you’re incapable of using your little mind trick,” she smirked. “That’s on account of me pumping the lifeblood out of your filthy, undead body. For such a successful business woman, you’re not very observant.”

Only then did Therese see the tubes connected to her lower arms and thighs. Her eyes widened as she followed them to the pump attached to a large container, already largely filled with blood. For a brief, glorious moment Vandal saw genuine terror flash in her eyes and then she screamed. Vandal threw his head back in mad laughter as she thrashed and squirmed, arching her back and pulling on her chains until the towering statues groaned and creaked. They didn’t give way though and Therese could not break free. She _howled_.

Suddenly a strange spasm went through Therese’s body and her face changed. The focus disappeared from her eyes and she bared her fangs. She almost managed to push herself off the couch and if the chains had not been wrapped around the statue she might have actually reached Vandal. As it was he merely took a step back and kept laughing. Therese shrieked like a wild animal until the sudden strength abruptly left her again and she fell back helplessly. Vandal thought he was going to choke on his own laughter. It was tearing at his lungs and making tears roll from his eyes.

“Damn!” Anna swore behind him and he turned around in surprise, trying to swallow the giggles still stuck in his throat. Anna had dropped the crossbow and was kneeling beside the pump, hissing angrily. “Look what you did!” she snapped, getting to her feet with a blood dripping tube in her hand.

Vandal glanced at Therese. One of the needles in her arms wasn’t inserted properly anymore and she had pulled the one connected to right thigh out of the fixture that was supposed to connect it to the pump.

Anna was furious. “You know what,” she snapped, and she angrily disconnected all the tubes, holding the ends in her fist and dragging them over towards Therese. “ _There_. Is this what you want? _Look at it._ ” She held the tubes up high and let the blood drip wastefully onto the floor.

The blood no longer flowed without the pump’s suction, but it leaked, spilled, dripped away right in front of Therese’s eyes. Anna didn’t even notice when the blood began to drip onto her shoes. She was walking towards the couch, staring at Therese with ice cold eyes, making her watch her own blood drain away. Therese stared with a horrified look on her face. Anna opened her hand and let the tubes drop to the floor. Blood still seeped from three of them. Therese gagged and shudders went through her entire body.

“ _Filth_ ,” Anna spat and she stepped away from the couch again.

Vandal watched her retreat, glorious hatred swirling all around her, and smilingly fixed his eyes on Therese. She was not fighting anymore. She was just lying there, twitching slightly, with that horrified, ill expression frozen in her eyes. Strange, strangled sounds were escaping her lips like little sighs. She thought _this_ was suffering. She thought _this_ was agony and fear. _She was wrong_.

Without saying a word he walked up to the couch. He forced the shivers of anticipation down into a glowing hot core of desire and skilfully plucked the needles out of Therese’s skin. The tiny punctures, even the ones that had been damaged by her thrashing, healed. The gaping wound in her chest was still not really closed, but these wounds were small and there was some strength in her yet. Vandal took a deep breath. He had dreamt of being on a level playing field with this abhorrent woman _so_ many times and now he finally… _wasn’t_. With his smile splitting into a grin Vandal pulled a switchblade from his pocket. He flicked out the blade and changed it to his left hand. Slowly he raised his right arm and turned his wrist towards Therese.

“ _Vandal_ ,” Anna said warningly, but he ignored her.

With a swift motion Vandal dragged the knife sideways across his wrist. The sting sent a shot of adrenaline through his body and the smell of his own blood rushed into the air. When it reached Therese that feral scream and the frantic burst of movement returned once more, but she couldn’t get at him and he let his blood drip onto her, staining her clothes, until it stopped streaming. His skin was healed, the pain was gone. Therese lay back, writhing, and stared at his bloodstained wrist with desperate bewilderment. She had seen him bleed and she had seen him heal. He was _stronger_ than she was in this moment and _she knew it_.

“Oh Therese…” he breathed, leaning towards her terrified face. “You have _no idea_ how long I’ve wanted you to look at me like that…”

She had lost her glasses during her thrashing and for a moment he stared straight into her grey eyes. Then the knife quickly changed hands again and he grabbed a fistful of her hair. She screamed as he ripped through it with the blade, first cutting her bun to pieces and then pulling out blonde locks at random to chop them short. He didn’t stop until there hardly anything left long enough to hold on to. Frantically he ripped open her blazer and cut through the cloth at the shoulders and sleeves to tear it off her. He sliced through her skirt, ripped off her silk shirt and tore at her panty hose with his bare hands until the grouped together nylon strands cut into his fingers. Panting, he stepped back, staring at the defenceless creature that had once been Therese Voerman.

Soft footsteps approached him and Anna touched his arm. It felt as if she touched _all_ of him. His nerves were singing like violin strings.

“Do you want some alone time with her?” Anna murmured coyly. “Shall I come back when you’re done?”

He steadied his breathing. No, no. She mustn’t leave. She must be _right here with him_. Vandal turned to look at her. “Would you watch me do it?” he asked, grinning.

“Vandal,” Anna smiled sweetly. “I would hold back your hair while you ripped her throat out with your teeth if you wanted me to.”

“Tempting,” he growled. “But not exactly what I had in mind.” He walked to the corner where he had dropped his leather bag and put away the switchblade. When he got back to his feet he was holding one of his sharpest steel knives and a blowtorch.

“ _Oh_ …” Anna said, delighted realization sparking in her eyes. “That’s brilliant! Why didn’t you tell me?”

Her delight, her admiration, her _pride_. “Because you’re not used to being surprised, princess,” Vandal chuckled. “And I _love_ surprising you.”

Anna laughed and Vandal felt an insane urge to chuck her under the chin. _This_ is why he wanted her with him. That laugh. That look. He had his hands full though, so he settled for a grin to answer her excited smile and turned the blowtorch on.

“Girl,” Therese’s voice suddenly rang out, strained but determined. “Whatever he promised you, he cannot give it to you. _Nothing_ he has is his own, it was all granted to him by _me_.”

Vandal turned to look at her. Amusement writhing inside him. Was she trying to use _words_ against Anna? _His_ Anna?

“What did he tell you?” Therese hissed. Her voice was weak, but there was venom in it. “That he could make you like him? He can’t. But I can. I can give you strength, _power_. I can even make you-”

“Like _you_?” Anna cried. “Is that what you’re offering? To make me like you?”

Her laugh rang out like a bell and Vandal closed his eyes for a moment. Her genuine laugh sounded so pure, so free of gall or cruelty. Anna’s laugh was pure deception.

“ _Look_ at you,” Anna scoffed. “Look where you _are_. How deranged are you, that you think you still have _any_ chance of bargaining with _either_ of us?”

“I don’t know, princess,” Vandal hummed, turning the steel blade in the intense blue flame, heating it evenly. “Maybe you should consider her offer… You’d make a very pretty vampire…”

Anna laughed scornfully and Vandal laughed with her. How he had _envied_ the gods of the night. How he had wished he could have their power, their control. Even more than bringing them down to his level he had wanted to rise to theirs. He had seen himself moving through the darkness, alone and untouchable, fingers outstretched to grab whatever he wanted. But now he was _better_ than that. Here he was, looking down on the woman that had ruled his mind, heart and body and he was going to _destroy her_. He was stronger than her. Better than her. He would walk in the sunlight if he so wished. He would be among people without them having a clue. He wouldn’t _need_ to control their minds to get them to let him near them. And he wouldn’t be alone. Anna would be right beside him. Nothing needed to be forced down her throat. She required no enslavement. She would follow him willingly.

“Mmm, you make a good point,” Anna purred, curbing her laughter. “After all…vampires are indestructible…infallible… Aren’t they?”

Vandal smiled and moved the knife away from the flame. The blade was glowing red hot. Anna was still talking, with that syrupy tone of voice that made his skin crawl in the best way possible.

“Oh yes,” she moaned mockingly. “I _need_ to be a vampire. Perfect and unbreakable. My mind’s made up. It would take a _lot_ to convince me otherwise.” She stepped in front of him and looked into his face with a grin that was exactly as beautiful as it was devious. “ _Convince me otherwise_.”

She stepped aside and Vandal brought the glowing knife to Therese’s chest. He would have started at her face, but her fangs were still bared and he should not get too close _yet_. His blood was _boiling_ in his heart. His eyes bored into Therese’s and he didn’t even look at the knife when he dragged it across her chest. He felt her scorching flesh give way and blindly plunged the knife into her stomach. Pain and terror crashed together in her eyes and she _screamed_.

♦

The smell of burning skin and flesh was nearly overwhelming. Anna leaned against the wall and stared. She wasn’t looking at Therese, just like she didn’t listen to her howling screams. She was looking at Vandal. When he had worked on Knox he had worked methodically and controlled. There had been a gracefulness to his movements and he had seemed engrossed in it in a way that made him intensely quiet. This was not like that at all. He was hacking Therese to pieces. Sweat was pouring down his face and with every scream that escaped Therese’s lips the grimace on his face twitched, wavering between a blissful smile and an ecstatic grin. Sometimes he laughed so hard Anna thought he was about to lose it, but he never stopped twisting the knife through her body. The only thing he stopped for, was to reheat the blade and whenever he did, he talked to Therese in a hushed, hot voice. Anna couldn’t understand half of the slurred words, but the sound of it couldn’t escape her. She had heard this tone of voice before. It was the edge at the back of his throat whenever he spoke of Therese. But now it was no longer just an edge, it was all she could hear and it made her shake. It made her knees weak.

By now she was sure Vandal was wholly unaware of anything besides Therese. Anna’s eyes darted from his twisted face to her ruined body. He had cut the skin on her legs to ribbons and carved scorch marks into her ribs. Burned streaks and ragged edges of flesh disfigured her once pale and perfect body. Blood was trickling from her mouth and running down her chin and neck. It was the only truly red blood she bled. Her numerous injuries barely bled, either from the lack of blood inside her or the cauterizing of the heated steel. Anna couldn’t see a single blemish on her face and wondered if she had bit her own tongue in her agony. In staring at Therese she began to forget herself. She had heard – though never seen – the hunters torture parasites, but not like this. They had demanded information. Branded their skin until they screamed. Cursed them and damned them to hell. Mocked them and finally executed them, but _not like this_. _This_ was how a parasite deserved to die. Ripped open and humiliated. _Begging for the mercy of the one they had used_.

“Are you watching?”

Anna felt lightheaded. The hissing of the hot steel on Therese’s soft flesh was never-ending. She was no longer the Goddess. No longer the Queen. No longer Vandal’s Mistress. She represented _all_ parasites and she was _suffering_. She was paying for the mistake of taking something that didn’t _belong_ to her. For having the _audacity_ of grabbing what was _not hers_.

“Are you _watching_ , Anna?”

She blinked. Vandal was speaking to _her_ , not Therese.

“Yes,” she gasped, swallowing.

“Come closer,” Vandal growled.

Her legs did not feel quite capable of carrying her at the moment, but she left the wall all the same and took a few unsteady steps towards the couch. Vandal’s eyes had not left Therese, his hands had not stopped moving, but Anna could feel his attention fixed on her. It was like he was waiting for something. Waiting for her. Anna stared, struggling to breathe normally and tried to fight the feelings tearing through her insides. _She couldn’t_.

“Slash her throat,” she panted breathlessly. “Slash her throat, Vandal.”

His hand lashed out and Therese gasped. The knife had not been very hot anymore when it slit through her throat and something like blood, but darker and thicker leaked from the wound. Vandal leaned over her low enough to obscure her from Anna’s view but she knew what he was doing. Up to this point he had not touched Therese’s face, but now he cut from her neck upward and disfigured it mercilessly. Therese hung limp, the only movements in her body the involuntary spasms of pain. Her pathetic cries became choked sobs and suddenly Anna heard words:

“I’m sorry…” Therese’s once cold voice was soft and broken. “I’m _sorry_ …” she whimpered. “Jeanette… I’m so sorry… Forgive me… Jeane-”

Vandal sliced through her windpipe. Her plea died on her blood-stained lips.

Anna felt the change in atmosphere and her eyes moved frantically, wanting to know where she should look. She chose Vandal. He ripped through Therese’s throat one more time and dropped the knife. His mouth opened in a silent, triumphant farewell and his eyes opened wide, before being lit by the fire that was Therese’s death.

She burned.

♦

Vandal had never seen a vampire die. Anna had described the ceremonious executions of the hunters to him, but her words had fallen deploringly short of the magnificence he now witnessed before him. Therese’s entire body disintegrated. It burned from the inside out, taking whatever was left of her clothes with it. Glowing, fiery embers filled the air and the last he saw of Therese was a grotesque skeleton that burned for a single moment, before breaking apart in ash and fire.

Vandal stared at the smouldering ash and cinders slowly settling all around him.

“That was _beautiful_ …” he breathed.

For a moment he couldn’t think or do anything. This was too much. His being couldn’t hold this much euphoria. No moment in life or death could _ever_ compare to this. The entire world fell away for an instant and then, suddenly, there was Anna. She was standing a few paces away, staring wide-eyed at him. Ash was settling gently on her hair, her skin and her clothes. Vandal’s heart resumed beating. His lungs filled again. Reality came back into focus and as soon as it did he grabbed Anna and dragged her across the room. By the time she let out a startled cry he had already lifted her on top of Therese’s desk and grabbed her face, smudging her cheeks with the sludge of burned blood on his hands.

“That was the single most amazing thing I’ve ever witnessed,” he growled, pushing himself against her. “The single most glorious, _blissful_ thing I have _ever_ done. And _you_ made it happen. You’re a fucking miracle.”

He sank his teeth into her neck and she yelped, grabbing at his back. Her legs wrapped around him in reflex and he lifted her off the desk again. She groaned, squirming in his grip when he bit so hard he nearly broke her skin, but he didn’t let her go until he dropped her on the satin-covered bed in the corner of the room.

“Are you crazy?” Anna panted when he roughly pulled her shirt over her head.

“Yes,” he growled, pushing her down and forcing her knees apart so he could stand between them.

Her back arched eagerly, but she was not as filled with triumph and ecstasy as he was and she was still trying to think. “We need to get out of here,” she said, attempting to sit up.

“No,” he grinned, dragging his nails up her thighs. “I want you _now_ , _here_ , high on the smoke of the bitch that used to own me.”

“That’s disgusting,” Anna grimaced, but the colour rising into her face said otherwise.

“I’m depravity itself, princess,” Vandal grinned. “And you _love_ it.” He leaned over her, threatening to bite her neck again and he felt Anna’s legs spread a little wider. He grinned and raised his head, inhaling sharply a couple of times, each time deeper than the last, until the scent of Therese’s death burned in his lungs. Then he buried his face in Anna’s hair, letting her smell melt into all the blood and burning.

“You got rid of Therese bloody Voerman for me…” he muttered in her ear, his eyes half-lidded. “ _Twice_ … First you got her out of me and now you got her out of existence.”

His hands were tugging on her skirt, pushing it up high and Anna squirmed underneath him. Part of her was still fighting and he adored that. She was so fucking stubborn. So strong. Suddenly he grabbed hold of the fabric of her panties and ripped through it. Instead of a cry of anger or annoyance Anna let out an eager moan. Vandal laughed.

“You _love_ this,” he chuckled. “Maybe you don’t want to, but you _do_. You _want_ me to fuck you.”

“Why don’t you then,” she panted, nails scratching on the satin.

He chuckled darkly, moving his fingers between her legs to make her toes curl. “Oh I will, but I’m going to make sure you know why first.”

She groaned and let herself fall back onto the bed. Vandal didn’t know what he liked better, when she was at his mercy like this or when she was fighting him and nearly winning. He really couldn’t choose. He made his fingers trace lazy circles between her legs and made sure he could look into her eyes.

“I’m going to fuck you, right here, because I _love_ you,” he said.

Her eyes widened and she opened her mouth to speak, but he quickly sank two fingers inside her and curled them. She bit back a moan.

“I love the way you strut through that dump of a hospital, having everyone fooled,” he drawled. “All of them doing your bidding, none of them suspecting that in the back of that sharp mind of yours you’re imagining _me_ doing _this_ to you.”

He pumped his fingers deep inside her and Anna groaned, digging the fingers of her left hand into his shoulders.

“And…” he grinned. “I love the way you bite the inside of your lip when you’re thinking of doing terrible things to _me_.” He bent his head to kiss and gently bite her neck, breathing hot breath over her skin, his fingers still working. “I love the way your eyes spark when you’re finally giving in to your own beautiful cruelty…” He inhaled her scent with every breath. It overpowered everything. Even the smell of Therese’s death. “And I _love_ that you lie to me.”

Confusion swirled in her pleasure-filled eyes and he grinned.

“You told me you agreed to kill Therese for _me_ ,” he whispered. “But that is nothing but a dirty _lie_.” He laughed darkly as Anna squeezed her eyes shut. She could look away all she wanted. He knew. “You wanted her dead,” he growled. “You would have done it yourself if I hadn’t.”

Anna was writing and panting now. He kept her legs forced apart by spreading his own legs, standing in between them. She didn’t even notice he was unbuckling his belt with his left hand. Her eyes were not closed anymore, but they were focussed on nothing.

“And I know why,” Vandal grinned. “I know why you helped me murder her and I know why you’re letting me take you, here, where we can still breathe in the scent of her death.”

Anna made an effort and looked at him. Her eyes were dark.

“Tell me,” he demanded, pushing his fingers even deeper.

“Tell you… what…?” she hissed, struggling to get the words out. “Tell you I wanted her dead? _Yes_ , I wanted her dead. _All parasites deserve to die_.”

Vandal laughed and he withdrew his fingers, making her legs tense frantically for a moment. “Really?” he grinned. “Is that all?” He brought his fingers to his mouth, tasting the dead blood mixed with Anna’s arousal. “Was she really just another parasite?”

The anger in Anna’s body at no longer being touched overruled the self-control of her mind. She sat up, eyes sparking fire. “ _No_ ,” she snapped, her voice rough and demanding. “She needed to _die_ because she _owned_ you and _you are mine now_.”

Her hand grabbed the top of his head and she forcefully pushed him down. Vandal dropped to his knees willingly and sank his teeth into her inner thigh. Anna cried out.

 “Is that right?” he chuckled against her skin.

“ _Yes_ ,” she hissed. “You’re _mine_ …” And she pulled angrily on his hair.

Crackling with amusement, he moved his tongue where she wanted it, making her cry out in gratified frustration. Her anger faded as he gave her what she wanted, but her frantic energy didn’t. He could feel it pulsing through her body as he dug his fingers into her thighs. He could taste it. Oh yes, he was hers, but _she_ was his. His perfect deranged princess. His murderous little angel. His beloved Anna. Her screams of pleasure were unrestrained and clear like singing and he felt her nails on his shoulders and neck. They could do this every day, every night. Rip apart others and make each other whole. Making a life out of death and sex.

As Anna inhaled sharply and lapsed into a momentary quietness, a strange sound reached Vandal through his muddled mind. It almost sounded like the elevator. He paused and lifted his head. _Could_ that be the elevator? Surely no one would dare coming up here without an invitation? Anna made an angry noise and grabbed at his hair, forcing him down between her legs again. He opened his mouth automatically and she cried out in wanton pleasure.

Suddenly there was a cry outside the room. “Miss Voerman?”

_Fuck_. Vandal tried to get up, but Anna planted her feet on his shoulders and forced him down again, letting out a delighted, breathy giggle.

“Jeanette?!”

The door burst open.

Anna let out a yelp, finally realizing what was going on and scrambled back on the bed while Vandal sprang to his feet. There, having rushed in without seeing any of the horror spread throughout the room, stood the club’s bartender. His eyes were wide with something wild and yearning, but that expression changed to horror as the smell of blood and scorched flesh hit him. His eyes were still filled with confusion when they passed over the pump, connected to the container full of blood, but quickly moved from alarm to panic when he saw the dark stains on the rug. The ash scattered all around. The chains hanging from the statues. Therese’s shoes lying on the floor. The unmistakable imprint of a body burned into the once crème coloured couch.

His eyes were still filled with confusion when they passed over the pump, connected to the container full of blood, but quickly moved from alarm to panic when he saw the dark stains on the rug…the ash scattered all around...the chains hanging from the statues…Therese’s shoes lying on the floor…the unmistakable imprint of a body burned into the once crème coloured couch.

“ _What have you done_?” he cried, turning to Vandal with unhinged dread.

Vandal stared at him with unrestrained wonder and amusement. ‘Jeanette’? Had that fat idiot just called for Jeanette?

“Oh my god… _No_ …” the bartender gasped, pressing his rough hand to his mouth.

Vandal took a fascinated step towards his shaking form. Where those _tears_ in his eyes?

“You… _You_ …” The man’s shoulders were shaking strangely. For a moment it looked like he would collapse onto the floor, but suddenly he jerked upright and snarled at Vandal. To Vandal’s surprise and amusement he reached back and pulled a gun from his waistband.

“What are you going to do with that?” he laughed. What a moment to bring out a damn _gun_.

“What did you do!” the broken ghoul howled, pointing the gun at him.

“I killed her,” Vandal answered simply. And how simple it was. All his triumph. All his hopes and dreams and release from suffering. Expressed in three little words.

“ _No_ …” the bartender breathed, staring wildly at the ruined room.

“Don’t worry,” Vandal grinned widely. “You can join her.”

The man screamed and fired wildly at him, but Vandal had grabbed him and slammed his head against Therese’s desk before he could fire a third time. He was perhaps half this ghoul's weight and still far, _far_ stronger than him. The bartender fell to the ground into a slumped heap and Vandal picked up the weapon.

“ _Guns_ ,” he said with disgust. “Noisy, dirty, _vulgar_ things.” He turned around with a self-satisfied smile. “Now, where were we?”

He dropped the gun.

Anna was slowly sinking to the floor, trying to hold herself up by grabbing at the bed. She brought the silk sheets down with her and they slipped through her fingers as she clutched at her stomach. Crimson blood was gushing from the ragged holes where two bullets had ripped through her perfect skin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The dark mistress has suffered her final death.
> 
> Mercurio is safe.
> 
> And I will see you next chapter.


	22. The Sharing of a Fate

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Content warnings:** Extremely graphic violence, explicit torture.

“Fuck…” Vandal choked, dropping to his knees beside her. “Fuck… _Anna_ …”

Anna was lying half limp, half cramped. Her breathing was ragged. Blood leaked down and soaked into her skirt. “Fuck is right,” she panted, fingers blindly grabbing at her wounds.

Vandal had enough presence of mind to snatch her hands away to prevent her from touching them.

Anna groaned and let out a strangled laugh. “G-good thing I don’t believe in an a-afterlife… I’d be pretty fucked, don’t you think?”

“Shut up!” Vandal snapped. He pulled her forward to look at her back and she groaned painfully. Both bullets had excited through her back, she was bleeding even faster from the exit wounds. This was bad. This was _fatal_.

“S-sorry,” Anna slurred. “C-can I still have a goodbye kiss?”

“ _Anna_ ,” Vandal groaned. He felt like his insides were ripping apart. This couldn’t happen. Not now. Not ever.

Anna’s looked at him and reached out to touch him. She didn’t quite reach his face, but her hand grabbed his arm. “I know…” she said. “I’m supposed to say that it’s okay, that you should let me go… but to be honest…I hate to die…I wasn’t done…living with you.” She smiled a blissful, bloody smile and muttered some soft words that got lost completely. Her eyes lost focus and glazed over.

Vandal was shaking uncontrollably. “Anna….” he groaned frantically. “Anna look at me.”

Her drifting eyes tried to focus on him, but barely managed to. “Oh…” she breathed. “Vandal… D-don’t look at me…like that…”

Vandal’s face was a grimace of grief and panic. The focus in her eyes faded away again and he made a strangled noise. “No!” he snapped. “Anna, _look at me_.”

Her eyes almost closed.

“Anna don’t you dare fucking leave me,” Vandal burst out. “Anna!”

Her hand grabbed blindly to hold onto him and her eyes focussed on his once more. She was almost smiling and sounds were coming from her mouth, but they formed no coherent words. Her hand slipped back and fell limply to the ground.

Vandal couldn’t look at her face. He knew what was coming. He could feel it coming. Closing in on her. Closing in on them both. He looked around wildly, willing to see anything but that. He spotted Anna’s bag. _She had brought her handbag as well as the suitcase_. In two seconds he was across the room and had snatched it from the floor. Frantically he searched through it. She must have brought some. She always brought some. She _had_ to have brought some. _Yes_. With a deranged look in his eyes Vandal pulled out a bottle of vitae. _Yes_. Frantically he tore open a box of packaged syringes. In a heartbeat he was back at Anna’s side.

“I won’t let you Anna,” he muttered through gritted teeth. “This whole fucking world can burn for all I care but _not_ you Anna… _No_.”

He filled a syringe almost completely with vitae and tried to steady his hands enough to inject her with it. She didn’t react when the needle broke her skin. Pushing the plunger had no effect whatsoever. She didn’t move. She didn’t breathe.

“Anna!” Vandal yelled.

He grabbed the back of her neck and lifted her head. Her eyes rolled in their sockets, half-lidded. For a moment he thought she looked at him and then she was gone again. Cold sweat stained his hands. She felt clammy. Vandal cursed. Almost without thinking he filled the syringe again, all the way this time.

“Anna,” he rasped. “You come back or I come right after you.”

He stuck the needle in the vein in her neck and pressed down on the plunger in one swift movement. Angrily he threw the syringe away and dragged Anna into his arms. He had fantasized about it so many times when he inhaled the scent of her skin, but now the smell of her blood made him sick. He could feel it seeping through his clothes, making them stick sickeningly to his skin.

“Anna,” he said, voice choked with terror and pain. “Don’t you fucking do this. You can’t do this. You _cannot_ leave me. _I am not living without you_.”

Anna hung lifeless in his arms and Vandal felt his throat being squeezed shut by feelings he had managed to avoid his entire life. Suddenly a jolt went through Anna’s limbs and her entire body tensed up.

“Anna!” Vandal gasped. “Princess! Look at me.”

Anna made a choking noise at the back of her throat and her arms and legs jerked uncontrollably. She grabbed at her chest and stomach and screamed. Vandal had trouble keeping hold of her she was writhing so badly and for a horrible moment he thought the vitae was killing her.

But her eyes were open now. They were looking around frantically, but they were open and awake.

“Anna,” he panted. “Look at me. It’s okay. You’re okay.”

“Va-Vandal,” she coughed.

Her hands found the fabric of his shirt and she grabbed at it. To feel her fingers touch him was an absolute ecstasy of relief. He held her tight, trying to prevent her from thrashing too much.

“Vandal what happened,” Anna warbled. “What did you do?”

“You’re fine now,” he breathed, ignoring her question. “You’re back.”

Anna gasped, tears streaming down her face. “I’m _burning_.”

Vandal pressed his fingers to her neck and felt her heartbeat racing. She was sweating and her chest heaved as she struggled for breath.

“What-” she choked. “What…”

Vandal didn’t answer her barely begun question. He was pulling off her stockings and trying to loosen her skirt with one hand to give her some air. She was still covered in blood, but her blood was no longer spilling. The frayed holes in her back and stomach were healing rapidly. He felt light-headed with relief and triumph. She was going to live, that was all that mattered.

A sudden jolt went through Anna’s body and she screamed. Vandal grabbed her, but she fought him and he was shocked to find that he had to use his full strength to keep her down. Her temperature was rising alarmingly. Vandal struggled to keep Anna pressed against the floor and he felt her heart thumping out of control. Red flushes of fever passed over her face and tears rolled out of her eyes. A vague and dreadful memory fought its way to the surface of his muddled brain. Something about too much vitae making the heart give out. He remembered a moment of red-hot pain inside his chest when he had taken his overdose. Anna eyes nearly closed and for a moment the spasms gave way to a strange sort of limpness.

Desperately Vandal snatched her up and held her so he could look into her face. “Princess! Look at me!” he ordered.

She looked at him. Her eyes were full of pain and panic, but she _looked at him_.

“That’s it,” he said, fighting against his own terror. “Now _stay_ with me.”

Anna seemed incapable of answering him, but she had stopped struggling. Vandal touched her face. She was _boiling_ hot. Her temperature was _still_ rising. If she didn’t cool down soon, she was not going to survive this. In a sudden inspiration he dragged himself to his feet, carrying Anna in his arms.

“Why are you always trying to leave me, princess?” he said with an odd, calm voice, while he carried her to the door opposite the bed. “By now you should know I won’t let you.”

Anna hung in his arms passively, the only movements she made the frantic rising and falling of her chest as her lungs cried out for more air. Vandal was sure she was still conscious, but only just. He kicked open the door to Therese’s bathroom, carefully put Anna’s limp body down in the bath and turned on the cold water. Another jolt went through Anna’s body and her eyes flew open wide. A wave of relief washed over Vandal when she gasped and started to struggle. He held her down.

“I know, I know…” he muttered with a forceful gentleness. “But it’s better than burning up from the inside out, princess…”

She groaned and suddenly the spasms came back, making her thrash uncontrollably in the shallow water. Vandal didn’t care. As long as she stayed conscious. The water turned red with her blood, but every inch of her skin that he touched was smooth and whole. He held her, leaning over the bathtub, making sure she did not hurt herself. Her temperature was still way too high and she seemed to be drifting in and out of coherence at intervals. They stayed like that until the spasms stopped and her breathing started to even out.

“There…” Vandal breathed, stroking the wet hair out of her face. “Isn’t that better?”

He felt her pulse. It was still elevated, but no longer frantic, and her temperature had dropped considerably. A shiver went through Anna’s body and Vandal immediately lifted her out of the tub. He wrapped her dripping body in a towel, ignoring her soaked skirt and bra, and sat down with her on the floor. His own clothes were splashed wet too now, besides being covered in blood and ash.

Anna made a noise that sounded like his name and he shifted her in his arms so he could look at her face.

“Anna?” he said urgently, turning her face towards him. She looked at him with utter exhaustion in her eyes, but didn’t speak.

Vandal exhaled slowly and resisted the urge to hold her tighter. He did not want to restrict her breathing. She was breathing almost normally now, and did not feel more than a little too warm in his arms. He couldn’t bring himself to talk again, sometimes he felt like he was about to throw up. But he held Anna and kept touching her face, making sure she opened her eyes to look at him every now and again. The smell of Therese’s death was still all around them, but that didn’t matter anymore. She almost died. His Anna almost died.

Eventually, after what seemed like an age, Anna opened her eyes and looked at him with something like normal lucidity. Vandal looked back at her and swallowed. He could feel he was smiling, but was incapable of controlling his face.

Anna moved her lips uselessly for a while before she managed to speak. “You… You gave me vitae,” she said wearily.

He made no answer, instead he stroked her damp hair. She had survived. She was going to be fine. Anna was his and she wouldn’t leave him. He hadn’t let it happen.

“How much, Vandal?” she asked and when he didn’t answer there was suddenly strength in her voice again as she repeated: “ _How much_?”

“Enough,” he said roughly. Enough to save her. _Enough to keep her forever_.

Anna tried to get up, pushing against his arms and Vandal snarled. Inwardly he burned with relief and triumph at this sudden proof of her strength, but he held her tighter and growled at her: “I swear to God, princess, if you fight me now-”

“ _Why_ ….” Anna groaned, her face screwing up with emotion. “Vandal-”

“You were _dying_ , Anna,” Vandal snapped, “I’ll be damned if I let this fucking shithole of a world take you away from me.”

His grip on her had tightened while he spoke, but she didn’t seem to notice. She looked at him with a strange, tired look. Suddenly, like a flash of light, a smile passed across her face. “All that protesting,” she muttered. “And now you tell me you love me and that you can’t live without me all in one night.”

“You already fucking knew that,” he grunted.

She smiled painfully. “I love you too,” she said and she managed a smirk.

Vandal growled and pulled Anna into a possessive embrace. “Of course I fucking love you,” he said roughly. Damn her and all that she did to him, but he _did_ love her. She was the only person in this bloody existence he cared about and he would love her forever. … _forever_. A silent, doubtful thought slipped into Vandal’s mind. He had saved Anna’s life, but…had it really been enough? Her reaction had been more violent than his, more violent than Knox’s even, but would it have the same effect in the end? If it did… The echoes of terror inside him gave way to a wild sort of yearning. If it _did_ …

Anna stirred and Vandal looked at her. Something in her face had changed. She did not look weak or tired anymore. She still lay passively in his arms though.

“What happened to the ghoul?” she asked, oddly quiet.

“I knocked him out,” Vandal said, glancing at the open bathroom door. “I’ll dispose of him later.”

She didn’t answer that. There was a short silence that Vandal felt was growing increasingly tense on her side.

“Vandal…” Anna said slowly, her voice suddenly sounding strangely restrained. “Tell me why that fat fuck came in here?”

Vandal snickered. “Because he thought you were Jeanette.” She _had_ made the most delicious sounds.

“That’s what I _thought_ ,” Anna hissed and she sprang to her feet with a sudden ferociousness that took Vandal completely by surprise. She had broken free of his grip with no effort at all. She was still only in her skirt and bra, but she marched barefoot out of the bathroom before Vandal could even ask her where she was going.

“Princess!” he called out, hurrying after her. “Hold up. What are you doing?”

“I’m going to _kill_ him,” Anna snapped, venom and fire dripping off her voice. “I’m going to rip him to _sodding pieces_. I’m going to make him _suffer_.”

Vandal clicked his tongue. “Those are three very different things,” he said and he caught her by the arm. She was staring at the still unconscious barman with pure hatred in her eyes. He had never seen her like this. Vandal felt the excitement prickling on his skin and he grinned at her. She _wanted_ this. She _really_ wanted this. “Let’s tie him to the desk,” he suggested eagerly.

Anna bristled in angry hesitation for a moment and then she suddenly marched over to where the barman lay slumped on the floor and grabbed him by his shirt. She nearly pulled it off him trying to lift him and with an angry grunt she grabbed his belt and hauled him onto the desk. He groaned, but didn’t wake up. Vandal watched, burning with triumph, how she bodily lifted the huge man off the floor. He really _had_ changed her. Grinning he took off his belt to tie the ghoul to the desk.

Anna saw what he was about to do and gave a scornful scoff. “No,” she said. “Let’s do him a favour. Let him _share_ with his mistress.”

Vandal chuckled and walked to the suitcase to fetch the keys to the shackles. While he unlocked them from the statue and chained the bartender up, spread out across the desk like the useless lump he was, Anna was walking through the room. When she came towards the desk again she was holding the gun. Vandal grimaced. Oh no, absolutely not. He understood the poetic gratification of hurting someone with their own weapon, but he was not going to let Anna use a damn _firearm_ on the first victim she ever chose herself.

“Please don’t use that, princess,” he coaxed. “I’ve got something better for you.”

He went to his bag and pulled out the leather knife roll he had brought just in case he would change his mind about his method.

“You don’t need anything fancy to wield pain and terror,” he said. “Just a skilled hand married to a knife…” He spread the roll out on the on the floor and beckoned Anna closer. “Come take your pick, princess,” he invited.

She came over, temporarily distracted, and glanced at the gleaming collection of blades as he carefully pulled them partway out of their sheaths. Vandal was crouching and Anna sank to her knees opposite him, looking on with admiration in her grey eyes.

“See anything you like?” Vandal prompted. He was impatient to see what her taste would be like. It was always best to pick instinctively, in the moment, with your victim already waiting for you. That was so much better than planning beforehand.

Anna reached out a tentative hand and let it hover over the collection. Eager as he was, Vandal appreciated that she took her time. Suddenly her hand closed around a hilt and she confidently pulled it fully out of its sheath and held it up to the light. It was a dagger. It was quite beautiful, but not what he had expected.

“Interesting choice,” he grinned. “I would have expected you to pick a scalpel.”

“Daddy was the surgeon, not me,” Anna said, still looking at the dagger instead of at him. She got to her feet slowly, weighing the weapon in her hand while Vandal put away the rest of his knives. He was pleased with her reaction. She had calmed down a little and that was essential. He would have to make sure she directed all that gorgeous fury and cruelty _carefully_. If she didn’t she would-

The barman groaned and lifted his head.  “…the fuck.…?” His speech was slurred, but at the first sound he had made Anna had turned towards him as if he had had the audacity to address her directly.

Vandal got to his feet with a grin. If he were in the bartender’s position, he’d choose his next words very carefully. Not that it would matter, there was nothing he could say that could possibly-

“Jeanette?” the man croaked.

 _Damn_. Before Vandal could stop her Anna had stormed towards the desk and had rammed the dagger straight into one of his fat legs.

The ghoul howled and thrashed in his bonds. Vandal watched Anna with bemused fascination as she twisted the knife. It was a good thing they weren’t dealing with a human, the damage she was doing now would have made a human pass out from the pain already.

With an angry shriek she pulled the dagger out and began to curse at the bartender in a tone of voice Vandal had only ever heard distant echoes of. With every break in her sentence she plunged the knife into a new piece of unpierced flesh and Vandal couldn’t have stopped her now if he had tried.

“I am _sick_.” – _stab_ – “And tired.” – _stab_ – “Of _ghouls_.” – _stab_ – “Mistaking _me_.” – _stab_ – “For filthy.” – _stab_ – “Bloody.” – _stab_ – “ _Parasites!_ ”

Vandal stood back in astonishment. Good thing she had chosen a blade with a strong hilt. His little princess was _terrifying_. Her stabs were not random, she was making an effort to avoid internal organs and major arteries, but her thrusts were too deep. She was doing too much damage. Vandal could tell she was _trying_ to keep the cuts shallow, but she just couldn’t help herself. _She couldn’t help herself_. Vandal’s heart skipped a beat. Anna was going to kill this guy. There was no doubt about that. Had she ever killed someone? He couldn’t recall… Every story of Anna’s about her former exploits he remembered. Every proof of her cruelty and brilliance was etched into his brain. He would have remembered if she had ever killed someone. No, Anna had caused deaths, hastened them, observed them, but she had never actually taken a life. This would be her first time. He was _watching_ her first time.

With a grunt Anna pulled the dagger out of the ghoul’s stomach. Blood dripped down her arm and glistened on her bare midriff. She was panting, but she didn’t look the least bit tired. Her eyes were glittering and a fiery blush burned on her cheeks. She looked like life itself and she was drenched in death. The bartender had stopped screaming. He hung unconscious across the table. Vandal glanced at him and felt bitter regret burning through his excitement. Her first time. All that beauty and passion and it would all be over in a minute. Far too soon…

“What did you do with the bottle of vitae?” Anna demanded, turning towards him. “Is there any left?”

“I-” Vandal began.

“Get me the bottle and a syringe,” Anna ordered, turning her attention back to her victim.

She had _never_ spoken to him like that before. Not even when she was outright threatening him. Vandal walked to the bed and found the bottle of vitae on the floor. He grabbed a clean needle out of Anna’s bag and walked back to her side. Was she really going to do what he thought she was going to do? Surely she wouldn’t. She had been so angry about wasting a small dose of vitae on that girl that ended up having to die. Would she really give it to this fat bastard now, just to kill him later? Vandal’s hand tightened around the vial when an unwelcome thought occurred to him. She wasn’t going to _save_ him, was she?

“Princess…” he began cautiously. He couldn’t let her do that. He _wouldn’t_ let her do that.

“Give it here,” Anna demanded, reaching out a bloody hand.

Instead of giving her what she wanted Vandal caught her hand and pulled her towards him. He couldn’t let het change terror for mercy now. Not tonight. He wanted her to keep _going_.

“Let me go,” she snapped, pushing at him angrily. “He’s going to die and I am _not_ done with him!”

A hot flash of triumph flooded Vandal’s body and he pushed the bottle and needle hastily into her hand. That _gorgeous_ murderous look on her face. She really _was_ going to use the vitae on that poor sod so she’d have more opportunity to hurt him. Vandal stood back, laughing silently. He would never doubt her again.

“Eugh,” Anna sniffed, holding up the vial. “You got blood in the bottle.”

“Not just any blood,” Vandal grimaced. “ _Your_ blood.” That must have happened when he refilled the syringe.

She took the needle out of its packaging without answering him, but suddenly she let out a giggle. “Well, blood poisoning is the _least_ of his worries right now.”

She had put the dagger down and Vandal picked it up while she filled the syringe with a carefully measured dose of vitae. This dagger was on the large side for her, Vandal thought. He would get her one that would lie more easily in her hand. One with a slightly thinner blade, just a little more elegant. His thoughts on elegance swirled around and changed their meaning as he watched Anna ram the needle unceremoniously into the ghoul's neck and he laughed. The _hate_. Her beautiful, unrestrained hate.

Anna had used exactly the right amount of vitae to heal the ghoul’s wounds without the concentration of vitae being strong enough to fight the vampire blood in his system. The bartender came to as his wound started closing. They didn’t heal completely, but they stopped bleeding and the tissue did its best to mend itself. With a groan the man opened his eyes and immediately started screaming when he saw Anna standing over him.

She snatched the dagger out of Vandal’s hand and raised it to drive it straight into his chest, but Vandal hastily caught her wrist and stopped her. “Easy, princess,” he chuckled. “You didn’t bring him back to just finish him off that quickly, did you?”

“Bring me _back_?” the bartender cried. “What the fuck are you talking about?! You’re _insane_! You killed the m-”

“Of course we fucking killed her,” Anna snapped, pulling free from Vandal’s grasp and pressing the knife to the ghoul’s throat before Vandal could stop her. “And if you had had _any_ self-respect, you would have _fled_. Been grateful to be _free_.” She let out a sharp laugh. “You don’t even _want_ Therese. You’ve been drinking her down like the filth you are but what you _really_ want is _Jeanette_ , is it not? Pah! _Figures_. I’ve heard the stories.”

She jerked her damp skirt down to her hips, exposing her stomach. The blood that had leaked into the fabric of her skirt left a red smudge past her belly button and Vandal nearly forgot to listen to the gorgeous cruelty of her voice.

“Is this better for you?” she spat at the ghoul, grabbing at the cups of her bra with her free hand. “Shall I put my hair in pigtails? Would it hurt less if I look like _her_ while I cut the _life_ out of your _useless_ body?” She grabbed the collar of his sleeveless shirt and yanked so hard she ripped it right off, making his neck jerk forward into the blade of her dagger.

Tears were streaming down the man’s coarse face and Vandal was certain he heard him blubber Jeanette’s name. Vandal put a hand on Anna’s shoulder and she retracted the blade from the ghoul's neck, she hadn’t done any significant damage.

“Take it slow, princess,” he chuckled. All that pent-up rage…

“I want to _cut his heart out_ ,” she hissed.

Oh, she was _so_ beautiful. “And so you shall, my love,” he breathed. “But make it _last_ …”

Anna huffed and pushed her damp hair out of her face. The clip that had held it back had gone missing and now she was smoothing it back with a bloodstained hand. Slowly she put the dagger to the bartender’s torso again and pushed. He screamed and she jerked on the knife, tearing through him.

Vandal grimaced. “ _Easy_ , princess.”

She pulled the dagger out and gave him a frustrated look, ignoring the screaming and writhing of her victim completely. “Stop telling me what to do!” she snapped.

“You’ve never inflicted pain on anyone before,” Vandal said, smiling patiently. He wasn’t going to let her waste her first time. “You’ve been far too preoccupied with mercy, princess.”

The bartender screamed something and Anna smacked him hard against his temple with the fist that gripped the hilt of the dagger. He went silent and Vandal chuckled.

“Where _do_ you hide all that anger?” he grinned delightedly, wrapping his arms around Anna from behind.

She hissed at him, but changed to sucking in her breath sharply when he sank his teeth into the juncture between her neck and shoulder. She leaned into him, lowering the knife. Vandal inhaled the scent of sweat, blood and arousal and firmly took the hand with which she held the dagger in his own. His other arm he kept wrapped around her bare waist.

“Now look,” he muttered in her ear, moving her hand. “Place the point like _this_ and just…draw a line.”

Anna tried to push down on the dagger and he tutted in her ear. “Shallow cuts,” he instructed. “And _slowly_.”

She made an annoyed sound at the back of her throat.

“I know, princess,” he chuckled. “But you don’t want it to be over too quickly, do you?” He bit her again, on her neck right below her ear this time. “I thought you wanted him to _suffer_ …”

She relaxed a little, leaning into him again and suddenly she muttered: “So where do I start?”

Vandal grinned widely and moved her hand up, resting the tip of the dagger at the ghoul’s collarbone. “Start here,” he hummed. “And draw all the way down across his chest…”

Anna put a little pressure on the dagger and when he felt she wasn’t about to push through this time, he removed his hand from hers, snaking it into her hair instead. Anna breathed out slowly and pulled the tip of the dagger slowly across the bartender’s skin, slicing it open into a thin red line. He came to again and screamed, but Anna did not seem to hear him and to Vandal it was only the gorgeous accompaniment to Anna’s movement. She lifted the dagger and started again at the top, this time drawing an almost symmetrical line across the other half of his body. The ghoul howled and thrashed, but Anna had started on his arms now and every movement he made, made the dagger dig deeper into his flesh. By the time the man’s screams had started to become incoherent, Anna had started giggling. Vandal felt lightheaded. He let go of her, allowing her more freedom of movement, and stepped back to admire her. Now she had brought her hate down to a controlled desire for cruelty instead of violent outbursts, she was capable of fully utilizing her medial expertise. She _knew_ where to cut to yield maximum pain without doing significant damage. She was making bigger cuts now, but she was tilting her knife so she did not cut deeply into the tissue. She was not damaging anything vital, but she _was_ getting increasingly bloody.

“You’re a natural,” Vandal grinned. “ _Look_ at you.”

Anna looked up at him and smiled. Both her hands and arms were red with blood now and there were smears of it on her face and in her hair. “I bet you say that to all the girls,” she quipped.

Vandal threw his head back and laughed. Anna laughed with him and gleefully plunged the knife a little deeper into the ghouls stomach. His eyes rolled in their sockets. He was no longer conscious, but Anna didn’t care. She kept going until blood ran out of his mouth and he had nearly stopped breathing.

“He’s going to bleed out soon,” Vandal said regretfully.

“Is he?” Anna panted, pulling the dagger out of the bartender's arm. “Then you better give me something bigger.”

She held the dagger out to Vandal and he took it. “What did you have in mind, princess?” he asked, walking over to his bag.

“Something _big_ ,” she said impatiently.

He laughed and took out a heavy butcher’s knife. “Big enough for you?” he smirked, putting it into her hand.

She gripped it tightly and Vandal marvelled at how strong her small hands were now. Suddenly, with a graceful movement that pulled her whole body into its rhythm, Anna raised the knife and plunged it into the bartender’s chest with enough force to force all the air out of his lungs. Blood sprayed from his mouth and kept streaming as she pulled the knife through his flesh. There was an awful cracking sound and Vandal watched with unrestrained adoration how Anna disgraced her heritage by cutting open half the ghouls chest just to get at his heart. Through the splintering of bone and the tearing of tissue all he could hear were the delighted noises she made as she tore the weakly beating heart from the man’s body and with it his life. She held it delicately in her hand for a single moment and then dropped it to the floor. Like a child discarding a coveted toy that had lost its value as soon as she actually got her hands on it.

Vandal stared at her as she put the knife down and glanced across the lifeless, ruined body of the man she had murdered. She was barely clothed and every inch of exposed skin seemed smeared with either the blood of her first ever victim or the ash of his former mistress. There were streaks of congealed blood in her hair. Her lips were plump and smiling cruelly. She looked like hell. Yes, Vandal thought, like hell itself. Her eyes burned with utter triumph and she had _never_ looked more beautiful. He had just watched her break a man’s ribs without breaking a sweat herself and now she was looking up at him and smiling _such_ a smile.

“ _Look at you_ ,” he breathed. She was so brilliant. So strong. She was perfect. Flawless. Just like him.

“Yes,” she said hotly. “Look at me.”

Vandal quickly closed the gap between them and pulled her against him. She grabbed his arms with her bloody fingers and he laughed delightedly. “My little ghoul princess,” he grinned.

“Don’t call me that,” Anna said defiantly. “I’m _not_ a ghoul. And neither are you. We’re not-”

Vandal scoffed and kissed her mouth shut, tasting the death and delight on Anna’s lips. Anna’s fingers dug into his back and he groaned with pleasure. He could feel the strength in her. Triumphantly he tightened his grip on her to a degree that would have definitely hurt her before, but that she hardly seemed to notice now. Flawless. Yes. _Just like him_. She kissed him with an intensity that he _knew_ was fuelled by what she had just done. Nothing quite compared to the high of feeling a life extinguish underneath your hands. And this, _this_ would be their existence. This would be their reward.

“We are going to walk out of here, princess,” he said, finally breaking off the kiss. “And we’ll disappear exactly like you wanted to. Me into thin air, you broken-hearted. And we’ll start over in Washington, or somewhere else if you don’t like it there. We don’t need the hunters anymore. We don’t need anyone. Not the bloodsuckers, not the bleeding sheep. We can do whatever we want.”

“You…you really think we’ll stay like this,” Anna said, looking up at him with uncertain excitement. “Forever?”

He _knew_ they would. “Can’t you feel it?” he grinned. “This won’t go away. And what you felt just now. Don’t you want to feel that _forever_?”

Desire burned in her eyes, but to Vandal’s dismay she didn’t allow it full reign. She had not felt it as long as he had, there was still room for doubt in her. Her expression sobered a little. “But is it… How _can_ we stay like this?” she struggled. “I mean…” She looked at him with the same conflicted wonder he had felt himself in the beginning. “We’re _alive_.”

“ _Yes_ ,” he said. “We are _alive_. And we are going to _enjoy_ it.” He tangled his hand into her hair. “We can do _whatever we want_ ,” he repeated. “All this.” He gestured wildly around him with his free hand. “All this is ours, to do with as we please. It won’t belong to the monsters or the sheep. It’ll belong to us. _Whatever you want_ , princess. You can have it.”

She was smiling now. He was winning her over. “Hm…” she hummed and she gave him a slow kiss.

“I mean it,” he said intensely, pulling back. “ _Anything_.”

Anna opened her mouth, but he brushed her lips with his thumb. Her mouth was so red.

“We could go find your mother,” he grinned.

A smirk twitched onto her lips. “She probably OD’d on something long ago,” she sneered.

“Well, if she _hasn’t_ ,” Vandal grinned, stroking her face. “We could help her with that…”

“Hmm…” Anna hummed and he saw the appreciation stir darkly in the depths of her eyes.

“Or we could go to Philadelphia,” Vandal said, leaning down to whisper into her ear. “And systematically wipe out _every single_ parasite in the area.”

She pressed a kiss to his collarbone and he rested his chin on the top of her head.

“Or we’ll go to Washington like you planned and play house,” he said, with a gratified sigh. “I really don’t care. I have you, nothing else matters.” He had her and he would have her forever.

Anna was breathing quietly against his skin, her fingers roaming over the fabric of his shirt and he knew what she was feeling. She was dazzling in the sensations. He had felt the same just after his overdose. Everything was so vibrant, so brilliant, so intoxicating. But all she needed to do was to just give in, like she had done just now when she had poured all her life into another man’s death. If she could just give in to what she really wanted. That’s all he needed her to do…

“Mmm…” Anna hummed against his skin and Vandal ran his hand down her bare back.

_Just tell me what you want. Just tell me you want what I want._

“I want to go to Washington,” Anna said decisively, pulling back. Her fingers were still lingering on his chest, leaving red streaks in the sweat on his skin.

“Then we’ll go to Washington,” he promised. Whatever she wanted.

“I’ve got a contact that knows the hunter’s there,” she said, a smile beginning to simmer in her eyes and trickling down to her lips. “We don’t _need_ them anymore…but we could still use them. With our help…they might actually get rid of the parasites.”

Vandal smiled. They wouldn’t. There would always be more monsters. Just like there would always be more sheep. That was the beauty of it. “Of course,” he said, nurturing the spark in her face. “You’ll be their hail Mary full of grace.”

Her smile widened and part of him swore that he could _feel_ her mind relenting. Glancing back at all the time they had spent together one had always been coaxing the other. It’s what they did best. That’s how they got here, a shining centre in a storm of chaos. With the sun about to rise on a world that could no longer withhold _anything_ from them.

“I’ll pick a new hospital,” Anna said, the shine in her eyes hardening.

“Of course,” he cooed. “Everyone in the neighbourhood will know Anna Deering… Nobody knows why, but her presence alone seems enough to make people feel better…” She could save all the sheep she wanted as long as she left him some little lambs to play with from time to time.

“I want a _children’s_ hospital this time,” Anna grinned.

Vandal held her a little tighter. “What a _wonderful_ idea,” he breathed, licking his lips. Desperate parents had to be among the stupidest creatures in existence.

She laughed out loud, voice full of delighted anticipation, and grabbed his face to pull him into a kiss. He grinned against her lips and slid his hand up to her throat, squeezing gently until she moaned and broke away.

“And you?” she asked eagerly. “What do _you_ want?”

He stroked her neck and grinned. He needed no specific fantasies. He’d have everything he could possibly want right at his fingertips.

“Maybe you would like a workshop in the basement of our house?” Anna smiled, pressing herself against him. “Somewhere for you to play…”

Vandal chuckled. “Would you like that?” he grinned, leaning down to nip at her ear. “To hear the screams echoing below while you keep a picture perfect house upstairs…?” Oh yes, Anna would choose a place in a proper, posh neighbourhood. She’d make everyone think they were a _delightful_ young couple.

Anna pulled back a little to be able to look at him. “I’d rather come down to watch you work,” she said, dark sparks shimmering in the back of her eyes.

_Anna’s bare feet on a polished tile floor, stepping daintily around the crimson pools of blood. Loose curls tumbling down as she bent towards a squirming victim._

“That sounds _perfect_ ,” he grinned, touching her cheek. “Maybe you’d even like to join me. Give me a repeat of your performance tonight?”

The sparks shone a little brighter and Vandal pressed a fiery kiss on her red lips.

“You don’t have to choose, princess,” he grinned darkly. “You can have all of that and more. There will be no more choosing, because you _finally_ got the one thing you always needed.”

“And what’s that?” she asked, an amused smile around her lips.

He tilted her head back a little more. “A body that will _never_ let your brilliant mind down.”

Anna’s lips crashed into his and he kissed her as roughly as he could, revelling in the fact that he would never have to hold back anymore. Not even a little bit. Anna moved with him perfectly, matching his hunger without any effort. When he grinned into the kiss and tried to break it off she wouldn’t let him. He growled and when they finally let go of each other Vandal saw that there was not a _spec_ of doubt left in her.

“Let’s get out of here,” she said with a smile that widened into a sneer. “It _stinks_ in here.”

Vandal laughed and watched how she started packing up the pump and the harvested blood with a sudden energy that was quite like her former cheerfulness, but somehow not quite the same. Vandal went round the room, taking everything that might lead back to them. He took the shackles of what was left of the bartender’s body and even took his gun. Not that it mattered too much what they left behind. The police wouldn’t investigate. The vampires wouldn’t let them. And they would be too busy suspecting each other and fighting over Therese’s position to even admit the _possibility_ that this had been done by mortals. Vandal grinned. Then again, it _hadn’t_ been done by mortals.

“How am I ever going to get all this off me?” Anna giggled, glancing down at her blood smeared body.

“Don’t,” he grinned. “We can shower when we get home.” He didn’t want Anna to clean up hastily now. He wanted to look at her while she rinsed herself off, the water diluting the blood and washing it down her naked body in red gusts.

She looked at him “Yeah?” she said with a grin. “Would it make sense if you ran to me for one last night before running for your life?”

“I should think so,” Vandal grinned. “Just you try and stop me.”

Anna hummed amusedly and put her clothes back on, looking around for her shoes and stockings. Vandal went to the bathroom and washed his hands and arms. He glanced at the dirty bathtub and turned on the shower to rinse out the remnants of blood and soot. Anna joined him, now fully dressed. She grabbed a washcloth and scrubbed the blood off her face until her cheeks were twice as rosy. With a chuckle Vandal fished her hair clip out of the bathtub and handed it to her.

“Ah,” she laughed. “Thank you.” She twisted her damp hair up and put the clip back in.

Vandal looked at her with a wide grin on her face. They looked as if they had snuck upstairs, had sex and a rather clumsy shower that had gotten their clothes wet. He checked himself in the mirror. On his dark navy clothes the blood stains weren’t immediately apparent. He washed his face, smoothed back his hair and chuckled.

“Don’t we clean up nice,” he muttered, pressing a kiss on the back of Anna’s neck.

“Real nice,” Anna grinned, walking back into the other room and throwing the wet washcloth and the used towel in the suitcase with the carefully sealed container of blood and the packed up pump. She straightened up and gave him a brilliant smile. “We might even pass for normal.”

Vandal looked at her. With her blazer buttoned she looked quite presentable, but he could _smell_ the blood those clothes were covering up. And he _knew_ what she was hiding in that handbag and that heavy suitcase, that she now carried instead of dragged, as if it no longer weighed anything.

 _Normal_. Vandal’s spirit danced within him. They would have their own special brand of normal. In a few months they’d be playing Mr and Mrs Cleaver, or Deering, or whatever they would make the world believe. He would walk through the halls of some Washington hospital with Anna on his arm. They would smile in the light and _fill_ the night with screams, their own and others’ alike.

“No,” he grinned decidedly. “We will _never_ pass for normal.”

He picked up his leather bag in which he had also put the vacumated tubes Therese had made him leave behind earlier and some other things that needed to disappear, like the nearly empty bag of blood. Anna laughed heartily at his comment, but he wasn’t done.

“We were never human, you and I,” he said smugly. “And now we’ll never have to pretend we are ever again.”

“What are we then?” she asked merrily, pressing a kiss on the edge of his jaw that was almost a bite.

He chuckled and preceded her to the door, moving callously past the lifeless body of the ghoul and treading the ashes that were once Therese Voerman into the crimson rug. He opened the door and turned back to her, holding out his hand. She took it smilingly and he pulled her closer.

“We are the new immortals, princess,” he grinned. “We shall inherit the earth.”


	23. Epilogue

Two figures sat on a high rooftop and looked out across the Washington skyline, leaning against each other affectionately. It was just past sundown and the sounds of the past day were beginning to fade away in favour of the clamour of the city’s nightlife.

“There will be a festival in Philadelphia next month,” the tallest figure muttered. “Three days and nights. Could be a good excuse to go for a visit…”

“I wish you would stop asking,” a gentler voice sighed in answer. “You know I can never go back there. Aren’t we happy here?”

“You _should_ go back there,” the first voice said firmly. “There is _nowhere_ we should be unable to go. We are-”

“ _No_.”

There was a tense silence, that was only broken when the tallest figure wrapped an arm around the other and pulled her closer. “I’m sorry…” she muttered. “I didn’t mean to-.”

“I know…” her companion replied. “It’s okay, Katja.” The distant lights of the city were just bright enough to give a gentle shine to the fangs that she bore when she smiled.

Katja sighed. “You’re just as beautiful now as the day I met you,” she said. She looked down at their hands, clasped together in a knot of pale and brown skin. “The loveliest kine I’d ever seen…”

There was another short silence as they both looked at the sky again.

“I love you, Beth,” Katja muttered.

She smiled. “I love you too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And…there we are! That was it!
> 
> This is by far the longest, darkest, most elaborate thing I’ve ever written and now it is over I only have two questions for you:
> 
> What did you think of it? I’m _dying_ to know!
> 
> I have quite a lot of material that didn't make it into the story (alternate endings, different epilogues that sort of thing). Would you like to see me upload those in the “Extras” section of Secrets In The Blood or would that take away the mystique?
> 
> My 13 guests, thank you for showing your appreciation and UncannyPrincess, Nikola, Vericia and Oh, your comments warmed my heart.
> 
> In any case thank you for reading all the way to the end and may your life be free of cruelty dressed up as mercy. Goodnight.


	24. Glossary

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A short description of important lore, lingo and characters from the game. Not essential for understanding this story, but probably nice to know anyway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case you're not familiar with the game or just need a little refresher course, here is the who’s who and the what’s what, taken mostly from the game’s wiki (<http://vtmb.wikia.com>).

**Vampire Society:**

 

**Ghoul** – A human who is blood-bound to a vampire. To become a ghoul, a human must drink the blood of a vampire – who then becomes their regnant – and must continue to do so once a month to feel the full benefits. Ghouls are faster, stronger, heal quicker than normal humans, and do not age because of the vampire blood. Depending on the type of vampire's blood a ghoul receives, their personality may change. For instance, if a human is given Malkavian blood, they may experience some of the side effects of the clan, such as hearing voices, suffering from insanity, and predicting strange insights.

**Regnant** – The creator and therefore owner of a ghoul.

**Kindred** – What the vampires call themselves.

**Kine** – What the vampires call humans.

**Sire** – The creator of another vampire.

**Fledgling** – A newly created vampire, supposed to be under the protection of their sire.

**Blood Doll** – A blood doll is a mortal who freely lets vampires drink from them. Some of them do not understand what is happening to them, others do and are simply addicted to the intense feelings and attentions of a vampire.

**The Beast** – The primal drives of a vampire that could turn them into uncontrollably ravenous monsters. The Beast refers to the innate demonic predator that hides inside every vampire. In times of extreme distress the Beast can overwhelm a vampire forcing them into a state of pure animalistic fight or flight, which is referred to as Frenzy. During frenzy a vampire cannot control their actions and will kill indiscriminately.

**Humanity** – Humanity is the measure of how closely a vampire clings to the morality and values of their life as a mortal human being, and consequently how well they are able to resist the urges of the Beast. Living by a moral code that forbids killing innocents, is one of the ways vampires preserve their humanity. That is why they are not supposed to drink a human to death. Vampires with high humanity rarely go into frenzy.

**Discipline** – Supernatural abilities that some vampires possess, usually clan specific. The only important ones to know for this story are Dementation and Dominate. They are both forms of mind control, only Dementation works by corrupting another’s mind with madness, while Dominate overwhelms another’s mind with their own will.

**The Camarilla** – The Camarilla is a worldwide sect of vampires. They are like a political alignment, the Camarilla being the “conservatives”, who value seniority of blood and tradition above all and keep a strongly hierarchal system of government in place. The head of the Camarilla in LA is Maximillian Strauss, after Prince Sebastian LaCroix got himself unfortunately blown up.

**The Anarchs** – Anarchs are vampires who reject the status quo of vampire society. They especially resent the privileged status held by elders within the Camarilla. The Anarchs are not terribly well organized, but in LA they have quite a lot of power and control large areas. Although they disagree with the Camarilla’s methods, they do share a desire to live alongside humans and keep vampires a secret. Unofficial leader of the Anarchs in LA is Nines Rodriguez.

**The Sabbat** – A vampric sect that rejects all the traditions of the Camarilla, especially the rule to keep the existence of vampires hidden from humans. They are extremely violent and monstrous and both the Camarilla and Anarchs fight them.

**Prince** – A vampire who has claimed leadership over a domain, usually a single city. The title prince is primarily used to describe Camarilla vampires. They hold authority over all vampires in their domain, are responsible for policing them, upholding the masquerade and granting the right to sire fledglings.

**Baron** – The Anarch equivalent of a prince, except a baron is chosen for their merit as a leader, not their blood seniority. This means that barons are usually weaker vampires than princes, since the older the blood, the stronger the vampire.

**Primogen** – The primogen is the leader of his or her clan from a city. They are ambassadors from their clan to the prince of the said city.

**Clan** – A vampire group of shared "Blood" or heritage, who can trace their Generations back to a common ancestor. The clans are the major vampire lineages that comprise vampiric society. The important clans are Brujah, Gangrel, Malkavian, Nosferatu, Toreador, Tremere and Ventrue:

**Thin Bloods** – Vampires come in generations. The oldest generations (sired by ancient vampires) have the strongest blood and are the most powerful. Thin Bloods are the youngest generation of vampire and they are weak. They often lack many vampire abilities and some of them can even stand sunlight. Vampires hate them, see them as a bad omen and kill or drive them away when they encounter them.

**Vitae** – This is what vampire scholars call the primal essence and energies of blood. It is the source of a vampire's power and also the cause of their cravings. It is what sustains the undead body of the vampire and the reason they must drink the blood of the living.

**The Society of Leopold** – A hidden society of hunters, basically the modern Inquisition. Their mission is to hunt all ‘spawn of Satan’, vampires included. They are a major threat to every group of supernaturals because of their extensive knowledge, training, equipment, and preparation. They know something known as the True Faith, which has almost magical abilities in very devout members.

 

**Vampire Clans**

**Brujah** : The Brujah have a reputation as fierce warriors. Quick to anger and always passionate, they have been steadily regaining their position as a clan of lofty philosophers, activists and revolutionaries, and are known for mysterious knowledge and power. They are mostly Anarchs and incredibly strong and fast. Their clan is known for their disorganization.

**Gangrel** : Gangrel, like the Brujah, are among the best vampire fighters. Unlike the Brujah, their ferocity stems from their animalistic instinct and rage, rather than Anarchic anger. Gangrel are loners and prefer solitude; they're also the closest to nature and the beast than all the other vampire clans. The stronger members of this clan can transform into animals. They are mostly Anarchs.

**Malkavian** : Malkavians are all clinically insane; the mental illnesses they suffer range from schizophrenia to near-catatonia. Their unhinged minds allow them to see things other Kindred cannot. Powerful Malkavians can drive those around them temporarily insane. Their loyalty is very divided over the Camarilla and Anarchs.

**Nosferatu** : The Nosferatu are the most monstrous looking among the vampires. They cannot live among humans and are also largely ostracized by other vampires. They are extremely gifted at sneaking and snooping however, which means they have information on almost everything and everyone and that makes them valuable. They are reluctant Camarilla allies, serving sort of as the vampire secret intelligence.

**Toreador** : The Toreador are the most beautiful and human looking among the vampires. The clan has long been associated with art and socializing and they are not very ruthless. They are very skilled manipulators, however, and can easily get humans to do whatever they want. Because of their beauty, extreme involvement in human life and love of attention, some other clans dislike them strongly. The Toreador are largely Anarch.

**Tremere** : The Tremere are a clan of undead mages. They are insular and secretive and not trusted by the other vampires. Still, their skills make them powerful allies. They have helped the Camarilla on many occasions and are mostly aligned with them. Powerful Tremere can wield powerful magic that alters the mind, steals power or outright kills humans and weaker vampires.

**Ventrue** : The ruling class among vampires. The Ventrue clan is the head of the Camarilla and members of this clan often become the princes of major cities. They move in the same high circles of human society as the Toreador and love to be in control. The Camarilla as well as the Ventrue clan are hated with a passion by the Brujah and Gangrel clans. Powerful Ventrue can force their will on others to such an extent that they can will them to die.

 

**Characters**

I try to introduce all the characters I use thoroughly, but in case you want some backstory on the games’ characters that feature in my story:

 

**The Protagonist** – He doesn’t feature in the story, but is responsible for leaving LA’s vampire society in a rather big mess. He was a rather ruthless Ventrue who decided to choose the path of the lone wolf. He was unwise enough to open the mystical Ankaran Sarcophagus and died in the explosion this caused. Before he suffered his final death, he killed Prince LaCroix, murdered most of the Sabbat, murdered a lot of the local vampire hunters and killed a considerable amount of human thugs too. Most importantly, he made sure Therese killed her sister Jeanette.

**Therese** and **Jeanette Voerman** – Therese Voerman is the a Malkavian and self proclaimend Baron of Santa Monica. She is the proprietor of The Asylum, a nightclub in the area of Santa Monica. Jeanette Voerman is her twin sister, except she is really Therese’s alternate personality. They live in one body, but seem utterly unaware of this. Therese is intelligent, arrogant, ruthless and cunning, with a superb mind for business. Jeanette is highly sexually promiscuous, childish, needy, but less cruel. Therese sides with the Camarilla, while Jeanette is an Anarch. They are almost exclusively at war with each other. The protagonist witnessed a vicious falling out between the two ‘sisters’ and sided with Therese, making her ‘shoot’ her sister and kill her. Ever since Therese has run the club and her political affairs completely on her own.

**Phil** – Vandal’s former co-worker in the blood bank. It is not quite clear if he was human or a ghoul, but I am inclined to guess he was a ghoul, since he helped with the whole kidnapping and selling blood thing. Phil got drained and killed by a newly freed and starved Lily.

**Lily** – A thin blood vampire girl who broke into the blood bank to steal blood. Vandal caught her and drained her blood to sell, until the protagonist freed her.

**Smiling Jack** – A Brujah Anarch and one of the oldest and most powerful vampires around, a fact which he is very careful to hide.

**Nines Rodriguez** – The unofficial leader of the Anarchs, a loud but brave Brujah.

**Skelter** – One of the Anarch vampires, a short-tempered Gangrel. Malkavians call him “Helter Skelter”.

**Prince Sebastian LaCroix** – A ruthless venture vampire and the former prince, head of the Camarilla in LA. He tried to grab control by using the protagonist and manipulating everyone around him, but got himself murdered in the process.

**Dr. Alistair Grout** – A psychiatrist that got bitten by a patient and ended up a Malkavian vampire. He became the Malkavian primogen in the LA area, until LaCroix had him secretly murdered for almost finding out his treacherous plans.

**Maximilian Strauss** – A powerful vampire and scholar, leader of the Tremere in LA. He became the head of the Camarilla after LaCroix died.

**Isaac Abrams** – Anarch baron of Hollywood, an old-fashioned but principled Toreador.

**Velvet Velour (VV)** – A beautiful Toreador that runs a strip club in Hollywood.

**Bertram Tung** – A Nosferatu. An expert spy and information broker that had a relationship with Jeanette before she disappeared.

**Knox Harrington** – Bertram Tung’s ghoul. He became a ghoul recently. He used to be a bounty hunter and is a very good investigator, despite his overexcited manner.

**Mercurio** – Prince LaCroix’ ghoul. He was born in the 1940’s and is a talented black market dealer.

**Heather Poe** – Heather was a fashion design student attending college in Los Angeles, living alone with her grandmother. Her parents died in a car accident and she herself got injured very badly one night. The protagonist found her in the Santa Monica Clinic, fed her some blood to save her and later kept her as his ghoul. From the moment he saved her she adored her master and loved him with all her naïve, trusting nature. She was broken-hearted when he sent her away, not realizing he only did this to save her life. If he hadn’t turned her away, his enemies would have murdered her, but as it was she ended up on the streets, going out of her mind with longing.

**Dr. Malcolm St.Martin** – A surgeon at the Santa Monica Medcial Clinic. He has a wife called Trina and is having an affair with Paige, a nurse at the clinic.

**Paige (Matthews)** – A pretty red haired nurse that is having an affair with Dr. St.Martin.

**Dr. D. Roberts** – An extremely capable doctor at the Santa Monica Medical Clinic. He has never lost a patient.


End file.
